Vandread: Annihilation
by lonefirewarrior
Summary: Immediately after the events of Vandread: The Second Stage comes a darker, grittier tale. A Special Forces soldier of times long forgotten now wakes after a century of cryo sleep to find himself in a war between his homeworld and the colonies he was meant to protect. As the crew of the Nirvana and their people will learn, wars are more personal than ship to ship combat.
1. Prologue

Zeeron entered the room to see a few of his Shipmasters, Admirals and Generals waiting for him around a holographic projection table, their decorated armors giving away their ranks. As expected, the two guards on either side of the door knelt while the rest of the bridge crew put their right fists to their chests and bowed their heads. There were about twenty operators in the room monitoring the ship's systems and coordinating ingoing and outgoing traffic. With the exception of the bright blue glow of the holo-table and the various lights from the consoles all around the room, the room was dark. Even with a ship as large as the one he was on, Zeeron wasn't surprised that his people could keep everything in top condition.

_The True Humans indeed._

"What have you found out about the ship?" Zeeron immediately directed his question to the officers.

"The vessel is small, my liege; max occupancy, fifty. From what our records show, it's definitely a colonization era ship," reported one of the Commanders as Zeeron walked across the room to the holo-table.

A pair of Honor Guards followed Zeeron in their traditional red plated armor carrying PR-20 plasma repeaters. "The markings, though. Is it truly a Ghost Wolf ship?" the leader of Earth asked in a hurry. A translucent 3-dimentional representation of a battered ship blinked on and hovered above the holographic table in the center of the vast circular room, rotating slowly for all to see from every angle.

Zeeron stood taller than the people around him and his gleaming metal armor was the black and ruby coloring that only the Earth fleet's Supreme Commander could wear. His scales were a charcoal gray and his eyes emitted the same dull red glow as every other Earth born human, True Humans as he called them. A long scar reached from the top of his dinosaur-like snout and down to his jaw, a reminder that even he wasn't invincible.

"Records say a Ghost Wolf vessel had disappeared during the colonization era, my liege. Particularly, one carrying the unit's commanding officer, Captain Salem Citadel." The General looked up at his Supreme Commander to gauge his response. Zeeron bared a sharp toothed grin.

_The leader of the Ghost Wolves in the flesh. An honorable addition to the fleet_.

Without further thought, Zeeron barked, "Get a hold of that ship! I want it searched and if any Ghost Wolves are on board, they are to be brought aboard and tended to immediately!" With his order everyone scrambled to their stations, the Shipmasters alerting their subordinates to get into standard formations around the derelict craft while a boarding party was established.

The Supreme Commander was currently onboard the Earth Fleet's flagship, _Sui Generis_. The warship in question was the largest vessel to be born from Earth. Spanning nearly 3,000 kilometers in length, the massive ship was surrounded by a fleet larger than any other Earth had seen. Nearly 10,000 warships were under the Supreme Commander's command, something he took much pride in. There was no doubt in his mind that he was in control of the greatest military power in the history of mankind.

The doors to the bridge opened up and in walked another soldier. His armor wasn't nearly as bulky as a normal soldier's and it didn't have the same metallic shine to it. Even in the dimness of the poorly lit room, Zeeron could tell the man's scales were rugged and that he had spines running along the top of his snout to the top of his head, a common feature among the older Earthborns. This was the Special Operations Commander Zeeron had requested.

"My liege," the man kneeled before his Supreme Commander and bowed his head. "You have requested me?"

"Commander Prowl, I have a special request for you and your ship," Zeeron told as he motioned for the Spec Op Commander to join him at the holo-table at the center of the room. "The False Humans have destroyed the Paksis and the Harvest Fleet with the help of the piece of the Paksis left to the colonists all those years ago, as you have already heard."

"Yes. That same fleet is still in the system where the skirmish took place, if I'm not mistaken."

"Indeed it is." Zeeron was not surprised that Prowl was more informed than the average soldier, it was in the business of a Spec Op spook to know even more than above average.

The holo-table rendered an image of a humanoid machine they knew as Vanguards. While the 12-meter tall, yellow and white vehicle was obviously a Vanguard, it was much different than normal. The most obvious difference was how smooth and less angular its armor was when compared to a Taraakian or Earth Vanguard. Cross-sections of the vehicle showed it had much more joints for flexibility than normal and had an energy core that seemed to require recharge from an unknown source. The computer cycled through images of its plasma based weaponry and visual/audio recordings of the machine in combat. It was unreal how smoothly the machine was capable of moving. Unlike the robotic and somewhat rigid movements of normal Vanguards, the Paksis enhanced vehicle before the Supreme Commander moved like it was alive, as if the pilot was fighting in person and not controlling a machine.

"This Vanguard is unique. Its weapons are unmatched, even by our Vanguards, and its armor is made from the same alloy created by the Paksis for our current fleet," Zeeron said as he walked around the table. "This Vanguard is also able to combine with these three fighters known as Dreads, ships that the females of Mejere use." Images of the starfighters in question appeared the moment Zeeron mentioned them. "Now, the Dreads are useless by themselves. The female pilots serve a better use, but they'll be obtained with the rest of the Mejerians once the operation begins."

The pilots of the three Dreads were shown along with their corresponding ship. A buxom blonde with amazingly long hair by the name of Jura Elden piloted a sleek red ship that looked similar to a streamlined horseshoe. When combined with the Paksis enhanced Vanguard, the combination became a Vandread resembling a crab that had the ability to generate an energy shield with the capacity to encase a large planet, as some of the videos showed. The purpose of this Vandread was to manipulate energy shields as its operators saw fit. Zeeron saw from his peripherals that her looks were catching the attention of the people on the bridge.

The second pilot was a girl roughly the same age. Her hair was only shoulder length and was tinted the same color blue as her eyes. A black piece of facial jewelry bordered her left eye and wrapped around to the top and back of her head. Her name was Meia Gisborn, and her bird-like Vandread was capable of moving at speeds no other ship could. It had a ramming attack that pierced through any armor. The seemingly angelic glow emanating from her pale skin was what attracted Zeeron to her in particular.

The last female was a crimson haired girl that was a few years younger than the other two. Her Dread was odd in that it bared absolutely no resemblance to a normal Dread at all. While Meia and Jura's Dreads retained some basic visual qualities, such as elongated bows with their cockpits located close to the rear of the ships, the Paksis augmented this girl's particular fighter in a way that made it easier for it to transform into its Vandread form. Dita Liebely's Vandread was a stronger and larger version of a Vanguard and had a pair of cannons mounted to its shoulders that were strong enough to critically damage even the enormous harvester flagships. The data streaming in front of the Commanders revealed she was romantically involved with Hibiki Tokai. Zeeron couldn't help but wonder if Commander Prowl would use that to his advantage once he learned his assignment. Even the Supreme Commander himself couldn't understand how spooks thought.

"The Dreads only become dangerous when they combine with the Vanguard. When they _all_ combine, however, the resulting Super Vandread is an unstoppable force."

The final Vandread was a large white machine that looked like a Vanguard on steroids. Videos of it in action showed it had Vandread-Meia's speed and precision, Vandread-Jura's plasma energy manipulation weaponry, and a weapon that was as powerful as the Paksis _Devastator_'s main cannon. A single massive beam of plasma fired from the hovering discs that rotated before the Vandread and nearly eviscerated the unfortunate ships that did not get out of the way in time. The scenes of destruction that played out both awed and angered Zeeron and from the looks on the faces of his subordinates, the same could be said for them. This machine's power was far beyond anything anyone could fathom and as such would be the undoing of the Earth Fleet. "All of this of course is only possible through this boy, Hibiki Tokai," Zeeron said.

The teenager, who was nearly the same age as Dita, was short for his age and wore the traditional clothing of Taraakian Third-Class citizens. Hibiki, however, wasn't born on Taraak. He was in fact a baby during the colonization era when the humans had set out to prosper for humanity's sake. Now, he had unified the galaxy against Earth, something for which Zeeron could not forgive him, even if he was a True Human born on Earth.

"Hibiki Tokai is the key to this wretched alliance against us and as such, he must be made and example of," Zeeron had practically growled the statement. "His machine is also the source of their military power, power which the corrupted Paksis had granted them," the Supreme Commander faced the Spec Op Commander. "I want that boy and that ship," he ordered. Zeeron knew the Spec Ops were resourceful and only needed a request to get a job done.

"My liege, that ship and this weak little boy will be in your grasp before you know it," Commander Prowl said.

Zeeron saw from the look in the Commander's eye that the Spec Op would not allow this mission to fail. "Dismissed, Commander," he said to the Spec Op before turning to the windows looking outside, looking upon his grand fleet with pride.

* * *

"This is a simple search and rescue mission, gentlemen. We'll go in and hit every section of the ship, breaking off into two man teams as we move deeper. If you find cryo chambers, search 'em. We're looking for a couple of legendary badasses that got left behind by the False Humans." A Sergeant briefed the two squads with him on board the UD-22 Chaos as the dropship left one of the hundreds of hangars along the starboard side of _Sui Generis_, its sights set on the beaten Ghost Wolf starship.

"Hey, Sarge, who are the badasses we're looking for? Ghost Wolves or something?" the warrior chuckled at the joke.

The Sergeant flatly replied, "Yes. There's a possibility that the Captain of that unit is on board, so show some respect when we get him out of there."

"Yes, sir," the soldier hit his fist to his chest and slightly bowed his head.

"G up people, we're hitting the hangar in five," the pilot of the Chaos dropship informed over the comm.

The metal blast doors that should have been covering the hangar were missing from the torn up old ship. More specifically, they looked like they were completely torn out from asteroid impacts. Whatever the ship had been through made it look like someone was deliberately trying to wreck the thing. With an open and intact hangar, the UD-22 landed and the rear hatch of the dropship opened up, allowing for the two dozen soldiers to disperse outward into the decaying ship.

Whatever used to be in the weathered hangar was long gone. The tears along the walls and ceilings were wide and damaged enough of the mechanisms holding the blast doors in place to open the large chamber to the vacuum of space. Panels were missing from many surfaces and severed wires slowly waved in the zero gravity environment. The magnetic stabilizers built into the dropship's landing skis and soles of the E-Human soldiers' boots were the only reasons why the landing party wasn't floating around the Ghost Wolf ship.

"Alright, nothing here. Jek, take point," the squad leader motioned for his teams to follow the warrior out of the hangar in into the bowels of the ship.

A thin layer of ice covered everything, and for a moment, the soldiers thought the systems were all offline. The dull mechanical hum that filtered through the frigid air, however, proved that something onboard the vessel was still active. Suit readings even picked up trace amounts of air lingering within the derelict craft, but just to be safe, the E-Humans kept their oxygen masks on. Armed with their PR-20s, the two squads cautiously moved through the angular gray halls of the old ship. Pipes and wiring that acted as the veins of the old vessel were visible along the walls and ceilings, an aesthetic design that was outdated because of the ease of sabotage. The footsteps upon the icy gratings on the floor were the only sounds audible besides their ominous echo that floated back to the squads.

The squads started splitting off into two-man teams as they searched rooms and moved deeper into the network of hallways. Two by two, the squads dwindled down until everyone was split up among the ship's interior.

"This ship was definitely made for Special Forces. The armory here has lots of guns," a warrior reported from inside the old room. The soldier with him tore a gun from its frozen rack and inspected it, a look of dissatisfaction crossing his face.

"These weapons are terrible. Projectile based pieces of shit," the E-Human tossed the frozen rifle to the floor and observed it bounced back up to the ceiling in the zero-G environment.

Ready to move on, the Sergeant stepped away from the doorway and kept moving. "If there's clothing or gear in that room, secure it."

"Why? What wrong with the shit they got on?"

"They're in cryo, Wren. They don't have on any damn clothes," the Sergeant rolled his eyes at the warrior's ignorance. "I think our armor's too big for the Wolves, anyway" the Sergeant added, receiving a, "Yes, sir," as a response back.

It wasn't too long before the squad leader reached a large set of automated double doors. He looked the doorway up and down, searching for any visual clues as to what this door led to. The worn out and frozen bulkhead provided no clues, leaving the guess work up to the E-Human soldiers. "Nex, you have your key?" he asked the warrior with him.

"Always, Sarge." The E-Human detached a small module from the rack attached to the back of his armor and placed the device against the control panel built into the frame of the door. The buttons beeped as he punched commands into the rectangular device. "Give me just a sec," he said as the machine powered up the dead circuits and mechanisms that operated the metal doors.

Just as promised, ice started chipping away as the doors slowly pulled themselves open. The two stood weapons ready as the frozen doors parted. With their Plasma Repeaters ready in one of their hands, the two pulled at the doors to open them faster, forcing the frozen steel back into the slots they would normally slide into. Once the doors were out of the way, the pair took a look at the room that was now revealed to them. At first, the room seemed empty with a white haze lingering in the air, obscuring the furthest wall. It wasn't until the Sergeant spotted the two rows of cylindrical tubes in the center of the room that he thought the room was important.

"I think we've got something, boys! Ghour, rendezvous at my location and tell Feln to bring his gear."

The Sergeant and the soldier walked into the wide chamber, this one more frozen than the rest of the ship. Whatever was in this room was still operational because the humming was strongest there. The soldier went over to one of the tubes to peer inside. He stood there for a moment trying to scratch the frost off with his tips of his armored gloves, when he finally made out something inside. "Sir, there's definitely someone in this one!"

"Check the other ones! Command?" The E-Human Sergeant moved from tube to tube, scratching ice off of them and counting how many tubes were occupied as he listened for a response from the _Sui Generis_.

"Boarding party, this is Command. What have you got?"

A smile spread across the Sergeant's lips as he spoke, "We've got five men in cryostasis here. Reel in the ship so we can crack these things open."

* * *

Captain Salem Citadel finally came to on a bed in the strangest infirmary. His eyes hadn't adjusted yet, probably due to the cryo sleep, but everything in the room looked alien. The gunmetal gray floors and ceilings of a traditional Earth ship, at least as he remembered them, were replaced with sleek and shiny reddish plating. The medical equipment all about the room, or at least what he thought was medical equipment, looked high-tech and sleek just like the room. More importantly, wires weren't bulging out of the backs of the silent machines.

_Where the hell am I?_

After running his fingers through his dark hair, the Captain looked around the room again, realizing he had not noticed the other men with him, his team. Right beside him was Marcus Grey, his second-in-command. Opposite from the Captain was the demolitions expert, Derrick Dresden, or as everyone in the unit knew him, Crispy.

_Wow, it's nice to see he can live without running his mouth._

Next to Crispy was the team's marksman, Orlando Johns. Lying beside Marcus was the final member of the squad, Murdock West. Relieved to see his men were okay, Salem sat up and hopped off of his bed, which he figured out wasn't a normal spring mattress, but something that felt more relaxing and soft. Before he could take time to contemplate what could have went wrong and why he was on a strange ship, someone spoke to the Captain.

"Captain Citadel, it's good to see you up and about," a voice suddenly emitted from the PA in the room. "You had been out cold for almost thirteen hours," the voice told.

"Really? That's not normal, is it?" Salem asked, fully aware that thirteen hours of cryo defrost was not normal at all.

"Well, we're not exactly sure considering the circumstances surrounding your defrost."

"Why? What was wrong with us?"

There was a long pause before the voice answered, "The Supreme Commander will brief you and your men later. For now, rest until our technicians bring you and your men's belongings."

The mention of a "Supreme Commander" alarmed Salem even further. "Wait, where are we?" he asked, receiving no response.

"The cold shoulder, huh? We must be in some serious shit," Marcus' tired voice croaked. The man was still half asleep and didn't bother to open his eyes when he talked. Marcus merely rolled over and said, "Wake me when our shit gets here, Captain." Crispy chucked in his half-sleep state at the request. After a moment's thought, Salem decided to take the stranger's advice and slumped back onto his ridiculously comfortable bed, lying there with closed eyes in wait of his combat apparel and possible food.

* * *

Supreme Commander Zeeron ran the simulation once more as he awaited the arrival of more of his Admirals, Generals and Shipmasters. With time accelerated to 12-hours per second, he watched as the virtual representations of his fleet destroyed another fleet and observed as legions of soldiers and war machines took complete control of planet. A smile caught his lips as he approved of what he saw. While he didn't like having computers crunch numbers to run simulations, every single one the hundreds of simulated battles he witnesses all displayed overwhelming victory on the part of his majestic fleet. With even more resolve than before, Zeeron anticipated his meeting with his highest ranking officers to discuss a battle plan he had been perfecting for years.

In mid thought, the doors to the bridge opened up to nine people. Expecting more Shipmasters and top brass from the various branches of Zeeron's grand military, he was surprised when he saw that five of the men weren't evolved humans.

_At last…_

"Nice place," Derrick said as he looked around. Right away, Zeeron recognized each of the soldiers from their dossiers. "This is some high-tech shit." Orlando gave the soldier a slight elbow shove to shut him up.

Derrick "Crispy" Dresden wore black thin framed glasses over his blue eyes, an oddity since techniques in the medical fields of corrective eye surgery had been perfected centuries ago. Much like the rest of the Ghost Wolves, he seemed to have the standard muscle build for soldiers of his era, their sizes not completely dwarfed by the larger E-Humans. His sandy blonde hair was a few inches in length nearly touched the top of his glasses. A trio of tiny scars ran down the bottom of his jaw, something that Zeeron's evolution enhanced vision made out even in the somewhat dark room.

Orlando Johns was a bit taller than Crispy but had dark hair that barely reached half a centimeter. His features were angular and his brown eyes held an intense look, one that many people probably mistook for distemper. After a second look, Zeeron realized the sniper's outfit was the most adhered to old Army regulations of the group, something that seemed out of place for a marksman, especially one of his caliber.

Standing behind the two was the largest of the group, Murdock West. The man of Latino decent was the only one with facial hair: a goatee that mirrored his short hair in length. Even though all of the Ghost Wolves had tanned skin, his was the darkest. The Supreme Commander saw the tattoos lining his arms and could just make out the edge of a tattoo that was on his neck. Zeeron knew from his dossier that the tattoo was of an the long gone coat of arms for the United Republic, an Eagle holding a dagger in one claw and a black rose in the other. He also wondered how he would fare in a one-on-one spar with an E-Human. Then again, there was no doubt in Zeeron's mind that any of the Ghost Wolves could hold their own against one of the evolved.

The Sergeant and second-in-command of the Ghost wolves was just behind his Captain. Marcus Grey was practically the same size as Crispy but was definitely bulkier in terms of muscle. Much like OJ, he seemed to want to keep a somewhat disciplined look in his appearance, keeping his brown hair just short of Crispy's. Marcus' bright green eyes observed an unnatural shine, even in the dark. Zeeron couldn't help but wonder if pieces of the evolution were inherent in his genes.

The Ghost Wolves wore the same digital camouflage pattern militaries wore nearly two centuries ago. The black, white and gray coloring of the acclimated combat uniforms, though, was out of the ordinary. Even stranger was the leader's appearance. Zeeron knew the group didn't particularly adhere to standard military procedures, let alone dress protocol, but that still didn't keep from being surprised at the man's ear length black hair, his rolled up sleeves and the long black scarf that was wrapped around his neck, obscuring half his face and draping down his back. The others in the group were no different when it came to their appearance discipline. To add to Zeeron's curiosity, the Ghost Wolves looked older than they were. Not one of them was older than 24, yet they all looked like they had weathered years of existence. Based on their files and combat records, Zeeron knew for a fact that they had seen more combat than any of his own warriors.

The leader of the group stood straight and snapped into a salute before Zeeron, stating, "Captain Salem Citadel of the 1st and only Ghost Wolves."

Zeeron returned the gesture and said, "Zeeron Virmire, Supreme Commander of Earth and her fleets. It's an honor to finally meet the heroic Ghost Wolves."

Salem chuckled at the statement, one that he had probably heard many times. "Thank you, Supreme Commander. I guess there are a lot of things me and my men need to be briefed on. No offense, but suddenly waking up on a starship built like no other I've ever seen surrounded by aliens saying they're from Earth kind of throws a soldier off guard," the Captain said.

One of the Ghost Wolves behind him felt the need to add, "You got that right."

"That's understandable, considering what I'm about to tell you. Come, join me around the holo-table," Zeeron motioned to the large table in the center of the bridge. The Ghost Wolves exchanged glances with one another before following the Supreme Commander. Zeeron took a moment to look at each one of the Ghost Wolves, not exactly sure about how to proceed. He was about to tell them a lot of information and he was still unsure about their metal states due to the abnormal cryogenic sleep. The doctors had claimed that they found no abnormalities within the unfrozen soldiers, but they cautioned that they should strain themselves just yet. After a second, Zeeron decided he'd tell them the date to begin. "Gentlemen, the year is 2552."

Right away Zeeron could tell the men weren't pleased. "Shit, 150 years!" Murdock exclaimed.

Marcus scoffed, "That's a long fuckin' time." Despite the responses of the rest of his team, the Ghost Wolf Captain stood silent and arms crossed.

"Yes, you've been in cryogenic sleep for a very long time," Zeeron said. "However, your sleep was a little different than normal."

"How so?" Salem asked.

"Your ship, as you recall, was attached to a fleet of colonial vessels on route to a pair of planets on the other end of the galaxy…"

An image of the two worlds projected above the holo-table: one that was partially green and looked like Earth back when it wasn't a toxic desert wasteland, and another that was somewhat barren, but still had the potential to look like its sister planet.

"Yes, Mejere and Taraak. We were supposed to train an army for security purposes," Salem recalled, the memory of his orders being relayed to him probably fresh in his mind.

"Yeah, 'cause training militia on the other end of the galaxy is why I went Spec Op," Crispy muttered beside him, receiving another elbow shove from OJ.

"Well, early on in the journey, the fleet entered an electrical storm, one that your ship apparently did not emerge from," Zeeron explained. "The majority of your ship's systems were fried and its locator beacon was destroyed. However, we found no trace of the crew that was onboard."

Videos taken from the helmet mounted cameras of the people who searched the ship played before the Ghost Wolves, showcasing their completely frozen vessel.

"We didn't have a crew. It was just us on that ship," Salem told.

"Whatever the case, the fleet continued on without you and successfully reached Mejere and Taraak."

Murdock scoffed, "Well good for them."

"How were we able to stay safely frozen if our ship was so damaged?" Marcus asked.

"Since there were multiple breaches in your craft's hull…" The gaps in the hull of the Ghost Wolves' ship were shown via images from cameras outside. "… The ship was frozen inside and out due to exposure to the vacuum. Being that your cryogenic pods were sealed, you were kept frozen by the phenomenon and kept stabilized by your ship's weak systems until we found you."

"That's why our post-thaw sleep was a bit longer than normal?" inquired Marcus.

"Precisely."

"Alright, so that answers one question. Now, how about you and your crew? Last time I was on Earth, I didn't see any reptilian humans," Salem stated.

Zeeron laughed and said, "Things have changed very quickly on our homeworld. For one, your kind of human doesn't exist there anymore. Anyone that didn't evolve died long ago..."

Videos and images of the evolved humans in their early stages of evolution played over the holo-table. The people that looked like Salem and the Ghost Wolves, however, were seen coughing and appeared very sick. Zeeron hoped that the recordings reminded the Ghost Wolves of people that had suffered similar illnesses in their time, record did in fact show that people were succumbing to the toxins even before any of the Ghost Wolves were born.

"Because of the planet's atmosphere," Salem filled in the unknown on his own as the Supreme Commander had expected.

"Yes. Those of us that stayed either evolved to adapt to the new climate or died resulting from hazardous build ups in their bodies."

Various data comparing the "old humans" to the "new humans" displayed before the group. The "new humans" were not only better adapted to Earth's dangerous atmosphere, but were larger and naturally stronger than "old humans" and as the Ghost Wolves soon learned, they were all male.

"Why were women unable to adapt?" Salem asked while staring at the representations of rows of dead women covered with white tarps.

"We still don't know. Our scientists believe it's something genetic, but we just couldn't figure it out. As of now, all females and humans that had not evolved are extinct on Earth," Zeeron grimly revealed. The thought of so many lost lives saddened him, made him feel helpless. While the human race was stronger now more than ever, Zeeron wondered if it was all worth the millions of lost lives.

"But, the colonization fleets, they're still out there right? You said Mejere and Taraak are inhabited," Marcus pointed out.

"You are correct and for a while, they served their purpose," Zeeron told.

"What's happened?" Salem wanted to get up to speed as soon as he could.

Zeeron felt a tingle of joy at the thought that the Ghost Wolves would join with his grand fleet. "When the colonization fleets set out, they were given orders to go to specific planets to raise their people according to our predetermined instructions." Holograms of nearly a dozen worlds hovered above the Ghost Wolves. "Melanis, for example, is a planet where they raised humans to have healthy skin. Cerulea's occupants had the healthiest circulatory system and their blood content was filled with more nutrients than normal humans…"

Zeeron went on about a few more planets before Salem butted in. "What's the point of all this? What's the significance of such conditions?" Zeeron cocked his head to the side, curious as to how the Captain hadn't known about all of this.

_So they were left in the dark. Interesting…_

"These colonists set out because Earth was suffering. Humans were losing the ability to reproduce and more were dying because of malnutrition and poison. The colonies were established for the people of Earth to survive," Zeeron spoke, walking away from the table as he recalled his own knowledge of the subject. "With the colonies set up, we would have had a way to get uncontaminated organs and blood to the people of our planet. The people living outside our world were to sacrifice themselves so that we humans on Earth could live…" Zeeron had his back to the Ghost Wolves and couldn't see the concerned expressions they relayed to one another.

"So, these planets were… like farms," Salem said.

Zeeron turned around and faced the Ghost Wolves. "They would have been willing sacrifices for the benefit of humanity. They were to donate themselves to keep the hope of humans on our homeworld alive."

Pictures of a massive fleet leaving Earth's corroded atmosphere played on the table. Enormous dark purple ships spanning kilometers in length controlled these fleets of ships. These harvester flagships were the largest vessels the Ghost Wolves had possibly laid eyes on, according to the looks on their faces, Zeeron observed.

"Holy shit," Derrick crudely exclaimed, clearly unable to comprehend such a fleet. Millions of robotic vessels moved outward from the planet, their intentions set on "harvesting" the humans outside of Sol.

"This grand harvesting fleet was under control of the piece of Paksis Pragma left on Earth. It set out to do what we had planned to do, even though that wasn't our intentions anymore."

"So the people of Earth _had_ planned on harvesting the colonists?"

Zeeron wasn't too fond of the tone Salem had used in his words. "For the benefit of mankind, yes. However, the evolution changed that and we no longer needed to acquire the people off world."

"Then what's this?" OJ motioned to the images of war between the Harvest Fleet and other strange ships.

"The Paksis feeds off of the people it's around. It set out to harvest, but had shared our feelings when we learned about opposition."

"Opposition?"

"The people of Melanis, Jun, Jupiter-II, and Mejere and Taraak all opposed the harvest. Despite their previous orders, they decided not to be harvested and therefore opposed the survival of mankind," Zeeron felt the anger rising in him as he recalled the events. "The Paksis formed some of the harvester flagships together in order to create the _Devastator_."

"The _Devastator_?"

A ship far more massive than the harvest flagships appeared. This starship was gunmetal gray and angular unlike the red and purple colored ships that made up the majority of the Harvest Fleet. "Something we on Earth had initially planned on incorporating into the Harvest Fleet. One massive ship with only one purpose: destroy any planet the harvesters no longer needed." The machine split open into a three pronged claw, revealing a core that pulsed with immense energy. It then released a red beam that impacted the side of Cerulea, incinerating its surface.

"When the Paksis sensed your discontent of the colonists' views, it built one from scratch," Salem realized, keeping his gaze fixed on the images of destruction.

"But, you didn't need the colonists. Look at you all, you've evolved to naturally survive, the way all beings should," Marcus observed.

"Indeed, and we are grateful for that, but we of course couldn't allow the liars outside our homeworld to go unpunished. So, we decided not to alert the Paksis of the situation on Earth," Zeeron marveled at the images of destruction before him. The False Humans had paid dearly for turning their backs on Earth.

"So, this harvest… is it still in process?" asked the Ghost Wolf Captain.

"The Harvest Fleet, as of four days ago, is destroyed. The peoples of Taraak, Mejere, Melanis, and refugees from the destroyed planets banded together and destroyed the Paksis, thereby ending the harvest," Zeeron hated admitting the defeat.

"How is that possible? Paksis is a living energy source, it can't be defeated," Salem thought out loud.

"Not unless another fights it," Zeeron read the Ghost Wolf's reaction as he remembered what was shipped to Mejere and Taraak with the colonists.

"The second half of the Paksis was with the resistance," the Captain said.

Zeeron's jaw tightened and he practically snarled his next words. "The False Humans corrupted it to join their cause. It crafted weapons of mass destruction out of the colonial ship it was built into and it created war machines for use by the people of the two worlds."

"From the looks of things around here, the half you had did the same thing before it left," Salem said in an amused tone that Zeeron disliked.

"These False Humans have insulted us and aligned themselves against humanity's survival. They destroyed an Earth fleet and vowed to stay separate of us. These things cannot be forgiven," Zeeron growled.

"It doesn't look like you have a choice. They have a Paksis to make machines for them. They destroyed a fleet you didn't need in the first place, and are now prospering as humans were supposed to. I think if negotiations are made, you can still make peace with them," Salem told. The things Salem spoke of were what Zeeron had considered years ago. But he was young then, and now knew that those humans couldn't be reasoned with.

"Negotiation is out of the question. Besides, our harvest fleet _did_ serve a purpose," a wry smile crossed Zeeron's lips.

More data compiled over the holo-table as Zeeron spoke. "While we may have adapted to Earth's atmosphere, we are still without a means to reproduce. Since the Paksis was unaware of this, we were not given technology to replicate ourselves like the people on Taraak and Mejere had…" Suddenly pictures and data about women streamed across the holo-table. "The Harvest Fleet still transmitted its findings to Earth and we were able to learn some interesting things," Zeeron looked into Salem's eyes. "The women of these other worlds are fertile and able to reproduce." Out the corner of his eye, Zeeron saw a few of the Ghost Wolves shifting weight from one foot to the other, their expressions blank. The Supreme Commander wondered if they did so because they didn't like what they heard or if it were because they were still a little weak from the long sleep. Disregarding this for now, he continued, "The battle against the harvest has devastated the False Humans. Their weakened allied fleet still sits in orbit above Mejere and Taraak, just waiting to be destroyed."

For the first time since the Ghost Wolves came over to the holo-table, Salem unfolded his arms from his chest. "What do you mean 'destroyed'? You're going to kill them all for their replication technology?"

"Definitely not!" a commanding officer observing the briefing called out. "The replication technology is definitely worth something, but it is the women of Mejere that we want," the officer said. For the first time, Zeeron had noticed that almost all of his high ranked warriors were on the bridge observing the Ghost Wolves' briefing.

"The Shipmaster is correct," Zeeron confirmed. "The people of Mejere and Taraak were separated to each planet according to sex: females on Mejere, males on Taraak," Zeeron motioned for the Shipmasters in the room to gather around the holo-table. "They might have unified against the Harvest Fleet, but the peoples of these worlds are still separated. Destroying the fleet and Taraak is all we need to do to get to Mejere."

"So you have decided to go through with the operation?" one of the Shipmasters asked as more of Zeeron's subordinates surrounded the massive holo-table. Everyone under Zeeron's command knew he had proposed similar plans along the lines of procuring the habitants of Mejere years ago, but they didn't know to what extent until now. Everyone in the room was pushing towards the table to listen as the Supreme Commander spoke, even the bridge operators.

"A great cloud of ice borders this system. Our fleet will situate itself on the other side of it, out of sight as the assault commences. Using the ABHs battle groups will jump into the system, first forming a blockade between the two worlds and attacking the allied fleet. Since our ships have the ability to make such surprise attacks, the allied fleet will be unfit to retaliate immediately. Current numbers project that nearly half of their allied fleet will be destroyed in the surprise attack. Once they start to coordinate their defenses, 2nd and 3rd Fleets will concern themselves with eradicating Taraak from existence."

Virtual simulations of the coming battle showed how the ships will move and how they will form a blockade between the two worlds.

"After the women are under your control, what do you plan on doing with them?" Salem asked, suddenly bringing attention to him and the Ghost wolves.

"Once you've taken control of their cities, we'll transport the precious cargo to the _Sui Generis_. Further research will be conducted once we return them back to Earth," Zeeron told.

"What do you mean 'You'?" Salem, leaning with his palms along the edge of the table, asked.

"You and your men are in charge of training and commanding the ground forces in this operation, Captain," Zeeron told firmly, making sure the Captain knew he had no choice in the matter. "Out of everyone here, you five have the most combat experience and will be a valuable commodity for us to use to successfully complete this operation. The victory of Earth and mankind rests on you." Zeeron squinted his eyes and added, "Unless you refuse, which I wouldn't recommend."

"Why's that?" Salem had his arms crossed again.

_A test of my power I see_.

Zeeron grabbed the pistol strapped to his leg and shot an officer directly across the table from him.

"Holy fuck!" Crispy shouted as everyone in the room jumped back, all watching the dead Commander fall to the floor. The only one who hadn't moved was Salem.

"You just might end up like this man here," Zeeron holstered the sidearm and looked back at Salem.

Salem's eyes followed the simulation before him as everyone watched for his response. The room was quiet as he and the Supreme Commander stood at opposite ends of the table. Zeeron studied the Captain's seemingly blank expression as he observed the battle simulation. Were he planning on declining the Supreme Commander's orders, Zeeron knew he wouldn't have been observing the simulation as closely as he was. "These ships, we'll need them to immediately take control of the space above the main cities. Halo City is definitely the key to the planet." Salem looked up grinned at the Supreme Commander.

Zeeron was pleased that the Ghost Wolves were willing to help. The day the False Humans' punishment was rapidly approaching and now the best soldiers in the galaxy were aligned with him. As long as Commander Prowl returned with Hibiki Tokai and his Vanguard, _Operation Retribution_ will be the greatest accomplishment for the True Humans.

_Meia, I can taste you already._

Zeeron returned the Captain's grin and highlighted a group of ships in the simulation, intent on continuing his briefing. "That's exactly what I had in mind."


	2. From the Shadows

Commander Prowl loved his ship. The Spec Op frigate, _Hallowed Soul_, had the most advanced stealth capabilities in the E-Human fleet and, next to the _Sui Generis_, had the quickest Artificial Black Hole travel times. Despite Mejere and Taraak being on the other end of the galaxy, a journey that would have taken a year to make without ABH, Commander Prowl and his crew were outside of the ice cloud bordering that system in a day. This ship was the smallest in the fleet, but still had the ordinance to hold its own in battle. The Paksis had most certainly blessed the people of Earth with amazing technology before leaving for the Harvest; the Commander's personal frigate was a monument to that. _Hallowed Soul_ pushed into the grayish-blue haze of the ice cloud that separated it from the two worlds on the opposite end where the objective awaited. It wouldn't be long until Prowl got his opportunity to seize the hero of the False Human alliance.

_These pitiful False Humans think they can defeat the mighty Earth Fleet? Idiots._

Commander Prowl felt a rage welling inside him when he thought of the boy called Hibiki Tokai. The disgraceful being had turned against the planet he was born from, his home, and then mocked those that lived there. Prowl even considered killing the teen outright as soon as he acquired him. But, he was responsible for bringing the boy in so that he could be made an example of. The boy would see the True Humans and he will be forced to watch as his friends are crushed under the might of _Sui Generis_ and the powerful Earth Commander then decided he would find his own little way he would get back at the pestilent boy, one that involved a certain red haired companion.

Prowl was pulled from his thoughts when one of the bridge operators informed, "Sir, we've picked up some bits of transmissions. Comms is trying to clear up the signal now."

"Good. I want to know what they plan on doing with their so called 'freedom'." Unfortunately for the Commander, the transmissions that came in were mostly those of celebration. The people of multiple worlds were all talking about how the battle was won and how the Harvest was over, that Earth was defeated.

_Poor, poor fools._

Prowl walked away from the communications officer and shook his head. "Try to get a fix on anything about the _Nirvana_. That's the ship we must seek out," he ordered. The comm transmissions would be difficult to decipher since _Hallowed Soul_ was so deep into the ice field. Magnetic fields from the rocks and hidden planetoids threw off most sensors and instruments. Luckily for the crew of _Hallowed Soul_, the Red Paksis equipped them with technology better suited for the harshness of deep space so, whatever they hoped to learn about their targets, the E-Humans would have to wait until they got their chance to strike.

Prowl walked over to the holo-table and opened up the deciphering program to listen in. Multiple signals appeared before him and he began to categorize them in terms of importance: civilian comms the least important, military comms very important, comms from the high command of both planets the most important. Then he categorized them based on how well encrypted they were. The Commander's decryption skills were part of the reason why he was promoted to Commander and he, in his mind, would probably figure out what he needed to know before anyone else could. Plus, standing around and waiting for news wasn't why he'd become a Spec Op spook.

Several hours into the operation, _Hallowed Soul_ was practically out of the cloud and rested on the border of the ice expanse. Two particularly large dots surrounded by an asteroid field were visible on the view screen. After a moment of looking the distant objects over, Prowl looked to his navigator and ordered, "Zoom in on that. Let's get a good look at our long lost relatives." Further image enhancements showed that the two planets were the homelands of the traitorous False Humans: Mejere and Taraak. "There you are," hissed the Commander as he studied the features of the two planets. "We'll be seeing each other very soon..." Looking over his shoulder, Prowl shouted, "Put the ship into 'silent mode'! I want electronic signatures kept to a minimum and all non-essential comms ceased until my command!" In his mind, Prowl thought that he was always a little too careful, yet, he also felt this was probably the reason why he was so good at what he did. Spooks had to rely on their own judgment to survive and so far, Prowl has survived more than most.

Communications from the so-called "Alliance Fleet" had become completely clear of interference, prompting the comms personnel to step up efforts in analyzing the vast quantities of data streaming in. So far, the Commander only learned that Hibiki, Dita and two other men from the _Nirvana_ were on Taraak, in the process of acquiring more male personnel for their ship. Apparently Grand Ma and Grand Pa, supreme leaders of the two worlds, wanted surveillance kept on the _Nirvana_ for educational purposes. It amused Prowl that the False Humans were so dim as to not know how to live with one another, knowledge that all sentient beings are inherently born with. This ignorance displayed by the peoples of Mejere and Taraak only made tracking the _Nirvana_ much, much easier, further pleasing Prowl. He didn't know what else the corrupted Paksis had done with the ship, so anything that helped to locate it was welcomed. Besides the little tidbits of useful information, the E-Humans hadn't exactly learned much for their the current data was anything to go by, Prowl and his men would be waiting for Hibiki for a while. Rubbing his chin, Prowl continued surveying the information hovering before him over the holo-table. Of course, it wasn't long until something came along to make thing interesting.

"Sir, we've got two ships on the star map!" an operator called out.

"Bring them up on screen!" Commander Prowl ordered, taking his attention away from the decryptions to look out the view screen again. As the operator had said, a pair of ships as large as _Hallowed Soul_ was approaching from the two planets. Just from the look of the ships, the Commander could tell they belonged to Mejere and Taraak. The Mejerian vessel had a cylindrical hull with a pair of wings located to the rear of the ship. The ship also bore the sleek and a polished white coloring of the Mejerian Navy. The Taraakian ship, looking nothing like its female counterpart, was rectangular and worn. The dull brown paint appeared to be a last minute addition as the men obviously didn't care about aesthetics as much as the women did.

"What is that, a space lunchbox?" one of Prowl's Lieutenants jested, evoking chuckles from the others.

The Commander shook his head with a smile. "Such primitive designs."

"Scans of the ships show no offensive capabilities, sir. They're research vessels," the Lieutenant beside Prowl told.

"Those are the two research ships our target plans to rendezvous with on the other end of the cloud," the Commander stated. "They're early, aren't they?" he wondered, ideas flowing through his mind already.

"Orders, sir?" the Lieutenant asked. Prowl rapped his index and middle fingers against his chin as he pondered the unexpected arrival.

"Maintain 'silent mode'. For the time being…" he said.

"Cloaking?" questioned the officer.

Considering the visual camouflage for a moment, the Commander decided, "No, I think we'll be just fine without them."

Under order of Commander Prowl, _Hallowed Soul _maintained its silence for the next few minutes. The two ships gradually passed over _Hallowed Soul_, the Captains of both starships conversing with each other about unimportant data. Their seemingly useless conversation only proved that the two Captains were unaware of _Hallowed Soul_'s presence. The research ships continued drifting along into the haze of rock and ice.

"Is it really that easy?" someone remarked after a few seconds, a statement that Prowl completely agreed with. The incompetence of the False Humans drove him to further push for his objectives. Beings as dimwitted as the False Humans deserve extinction.

_To think all they had to do was take a good look out the window._

Without further interruption, the crews went back to their decryptions, Prowl now sitting in his personal chair in contemplation. "Their instruments are incapable of transmitting through the cloud, correct?" Commander Prowl asked the comm operator, rotating his chair to face him.

"Yes, sir. Their communications technology is still a bit behind ours."

"Go back and analyze their signal and see if our system can emulate it," Prowl told. The answer to how to capture Hibiki Tokai and his Vanguard was suddenly clear. "Helmsman, take us back into the cloud and tail those research ships!"

"Sir, what have you got in mind?" another Lieutenant asked.

"The crew of the _Nirvana_ hasn't seen or learned the names of the ships they're to meet with for standard security reasons. So, I'm sure they won't know the difference between a research vessel and an Earth stealth frigate in this cloud," he grinned at the deceptive plan. "With a major battle won, I don't think they'll be expecting any trouble any time soon."

* * *

The boy stepped up to the railing overlooking the pond at the far end of the ship's Environment Room. Tall trees and various types of flora filled the greenhouse-like room and thus produced a smell far more pleasant than anything on Taraak. Coupled with the endless view of the stars outside of the spaceship, this room had the best view in the galaxy. "It's good to be back," he said, looking to the girl clinging to his arm with glee. Dita had never left Hibiki's side since he and the other two men on the pirate ship _Nirvana_ left for Taraak.

The trip took far less time than anticipated, much to Hibiki's liking. They arrived on Taraak for one purpose, to find suitable men for the primarily female crew of the _Nirvana_. The idea of playing matchmaker annoyed the Vanguard pilot, but then again, there wasn't really anyone else on board the _Nirvana_ that was qualified to do so. With the obvious exception of Misty, no one on either planet knew what it's like to grow up with the opposite sex. The women of Mejere and the men of Taraak had been separated and lied to for so long that Hibiki and his companions thought people would be unwilling to join in on the experiment. To Hibiki and Dita's surprise, men were already waiting for them at the starport to join in the cause. With everything hastily taken care of, Hibiki returned with forty young men, all of them Vanguard operators, medical practitioners and engineers. If Hibiki had to bring back people, he made sure they were people who could be useful for reasons other than procreation. That little detail still sent a shiver of nervousness through him.

The beautiful view of the stars slowly vanished as a chunk of metal twirled by the ship. Soon, more and more pieces of starships floated by, reminding Hibiki what happened in the very spot the _Nirvana_ currently traversed and of what he was about to see. Hovering gloomily outside of the pirate ship, _Nirvana,_ was a large expanse of scorched metal and wiring. Husks of scarred warships and chunks of Class-IV armor twirled endlessly in the large starship graveyard. Even though the jets of superheated plasma had already burnt themselves out, the debris littering the vacuum outside was only three days old.

"That big one there… That's the Red Paksis' _Devastator_, right?" the little girl standing on the other side of him asked. One particularly large ghost vessel slowly passed the massive observation window. Its charred skeleton had plasma burns and explosive damage all along its hull, front to back. It once was the mightiest, most terrifying ship that had been forged within the factories on Earth, now it was grave to the one sibling the Paksis Pragma ever had.

"Yeah. I can't believe so much of it survived," Dita said to the 12-year-old girl, Paiway.

There was a moment of silence between them as they remembered the battle. Hundreds of lives lost, the suffering and pain, all of it because the people of Earth were so selfish. Hibiki hated the people of Earth for what happened, he cursed them and wondered why they had become monsters. But, when he was getting angry and when he felt the need to scream out, Dita was there to calm him. The girl that had lovingly called him "Mr. Alien" would always be with him and that was enough to relax his nerves.

Grand Ma, leader of Mejere, and Grand Pa, leader of Taraak, reopened communications with each other's planets just the other day. Decades of conflict and ceased communications between the men of Taraak and the women of Mejere abruptly ended when the very real threat of annihilation knocked on the doorstep of these two worlds. Following Hibiki's words, the fleets of both worlds banded together to fight the Harvest, a union that saw triumph as a result. The _Nirvana_ was now on a mission from the leaders of these planets to meet with Mejerian and Taraakian scientists. The crew was to be put under observation for the citizens of Mejere and Taraak so that they could be educated on how men and women could live together. Since the sexes had been separated for so long, most men and women believed it to be impossible for either to cohabitate with one another. Hibiki and his friends sought to prove them wrong.

"Here's to a new voyage with our new friends!" The young helmsman of the _Nirvana_, Bart, popped open a champagne bottle and sprayed its contents all over those around him as the ship began to enter the ice cloud. Cheers and laughter erupted from the crew of the _Nirvana _as drinks were handed out. Everyone onboard the ship was in the Environment Room in celebration of their victory over the Earth armada.

It was kind of funny to Hibiki that Bart and Duelo still wore uniforms of the Taraak military. Although he, on the other hand, still dressed as a third-class citizen, so he wasn't in any position to judge. The doctor in question was probably met with as big a welcome as he was. Considering the man stayed calm almost all the time and provided nothing but full professional medical expertise to the people on board, it was only right that the women showed they were grateful. They of course had to endure Hibiki's antics on a daily basis.

The new male crew members were still a little nervous about mingling with the women and stayed off to the side. As they all soon learned, the women who had long grown accustomed with living with men weren't afraid to pull them into the party. A year ago, Hibiki was just like them and the female pirates weren't much different with the exception of Dita. But after everything they had all been through, a bond formed among the crew, a mutual understanding that they could overcome any obstacles when banded together. So, Hibiki grabbed Dita's hand and ran off to join in the celebration.

Right away, a blonde with amazingly long hair and a young woman holding her hand stopped the two of them. "It's about time you got back, things were getting boring around here," the girl with shoulder length dark hair said.

"Take a look at the crap left over from the battle. There isn't anything left to fight, so it's gonna get boring anyway!" Hibiki said.

"Don't worry, Barnette, I'm sure we'll find some way of keeping busy," Jura said, eyeing the men Hibiki had brought with him onto the ship. Jura had been very specific with Hibiki on her criteria for men allowed on the ship. In fact, the boy was sure she said, "Dirty guys and ugly guys were out of the question!" Hibiki was just glad that she wasn't bugging him for his "seed" like before.

With a grin, Hibiki said, "Yeah, I'm sure you will."

"What do you mean by that, Hibiki?" Dita asked with suspicion.

Before Hibiki could respond, Barnette slapped him on the back and shoved him along. "Now get a move on you two, I'm sure the rest of the crew is anxious to see you!" Heeding the girl's words, the Earthborn and Dita moved on through the crowd.

After shaking more hands and receiving unexpected hugs, Hibiki and Dita were before the Captain and Sub-Commanders. "How was the vacation?" Sub-Commander Buzam asked upon seeing the boy.

With a laugh, Hibiki replied, "It was a blast. We played on the beach and everything."

"Well don't get too comfortable, once we set out, it's back to business as usual," said Rebecca.

Rebecca and her pirate crew merged with the _Nirvana_'s after the final battle with the Harvester fleet. To Hibiki's dismay, the females still received rooms while most of the new men were confined to the brig like he was.

"So what is 'business as usual' for ex-pirates?" asked Dita.

"Whatever we can think of. We're still free to roam around the galaxy as we please you know," replied Captain Magno.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"It's good to have you back, young man," Magno nodded to Hibiki.

In the midst of celebratory atmosphere of the party, almost no one noticed a large mass melting out of the grayness of the ice cloud.

"Hey, check out this ship!" one of the new men, suddenly pointed out.

Gradually, everyone looked up through the large observation window of the Environment Room. Through the haze of ice, rock and snow, the crew of the _Nirvana_ could make out the dark silhouette of a starship.

"I've never seen a ship like that before," the elderly Captain Magno stated as she observed the outline. Murmurs of agreement filled the room as everyone studied the odd vessel. The ship's bow was pointed with a pair of long triangular struts lining either sides of the hull. Just before Sub-Commander Rebecca hailed the ship, the comm system suddenly opened up.

"This is research vessel, _Hallowed Soul_, to pirate ship, _Nirvana_," a gruff male voice echoed overhead.

"_Hallowed Soul_, this is Captain Magno, what can we help you with?" the old woman spoke with the same friendly, but firm voice she always spoke with.

"We were on course for the rally point where the Mejerian research vessel awaits when we realized we needed some information concerning certain members of your crew; specifically, Hibiki Tokai," the man explained. "Mr. Tokai, if you don't mind, we would like for you to come on board momentarily so we can get some information sorted out."

Right off the back, Hibiki sensed something off about the man's voice, something inhuman. Then there was the morbid name, _Hallowed Soul_, something that didn't sound fitting for a Taraakian research vessel. Thinking he was just being paranoid, he decided to take his mind off the matter.

"No problem, _Hallowed Soul_. Keep your hangar doors open," Hibiki told.

"We'll be waiting," the man responded before signing off.

Jumping onto a table to see everyone, Hibiki shouted out, "Well sorry ladies, but, it looks like we're going to have to cut this party short!"

"Good riddance, you've been eating too much of the food!" Squadron Leader Meia joked, causing the rest of the crew to laugh.

"Oh yeah, well screw you guys too!" Hibiki hopped off the table he stood upon.

"How long will you be gone?" Dita asked grabbing her lover's hand tight and pulling him back toward her.

"I don't know, it depends on what they need," Hibiki told.

"Can I come with you?" Dita's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Why don't you stay here for now? You'll probably get bored over there anyhow."

"I won't get bored if I'm with you, Hibiki!"

Hibiki shook his head. The girl was stubborn, but he didn't want to cut the celebration short for her. "I want to know you're here waiting for me to come back," Hibiki took the girl's hands when a frown crossed her face. "I'll be back soon. I promise that."

Suddenly, Dita's lips were pressed against his, evoking cheers from the crew of the _Nirvana_. Hibiki kept his forehead pressed against Dita's, trying to hide his red face from the crew. "I'll wait for you right here," Dita whispered to him. After a moment's embrace, Hibiki walked out of the environment room and headed down the hall, suspicions nagging him every step of the way.

_Why did he say 'pirate ship'? We're not pirates any more._

* * *

A few more minutes went by before the crew of the _Nirvana_ could see the yellow and white humanoid form of Hibiki's Vanguard traversing the icy cloud outside, the greenish-blue exhaust from its jets giving away its position. The Vanguard stopped midway and turned to wave back at the crew looking up at it, taking a few more moments to strike poses.

"Can he take anything seriously?" Bart remarked while the rest of the crew waved back. Eventually, Hibiki disappeared into the outline of the research vessel.

"_Hallowed Soul_, is Hibiki on board?" Commander Buzam asked for confirmation. When the Sub-Commander was met with silence she asked a single word, a strange ripple effect formed along the hull of _Hallowed Soul_.

At first the effect was subtle and almost unnoticeable. As the ripples grew, the people watching became more and more alarmed. Soon, the ship seemed to distort as the ice shook from the massive hunks of rock nearby.

"What's going on?" Captain Magno asked. Suddenly, the ship shrunk into itself and a burst of energy slammed against everything around where the research vessel used to be, slightly pushing the _Nirvana_ off course. Everyone grabbed a hold of what they could as the ship rocked. The short tremor lasted only a few seconds if the sound of rustling leaves was anything to go by.

When everything seemed quiet, Amarone, the ship's dark skinned radar operator, looked back at Chief Engineer Parfet, and simply asked, "What the hell was that?"

"The Paksis is picking up strange readings. I can't figure any of them out," reported the egg shaped robot at their feet, Pyoro.

Parfet knelt to look at the data displayed on Pyoro's screen/face and cocked an eyebrow. "I don't know what any of this means. I've never seen readings like this before."

"Was that even a Taraakian ship?" Magno asked, motioning for the bridge crew to head back up to their stations for further analysis. Instinctually, everyone knew the party was over and everyone began heading back to their stations in a near panic state.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything that had ever done that before," Buzam looked back at the ice cloud that surrounded the pirate ship, her eyes twitching from figure to figure as she tried to identify the strange starship. The same apprehensive thoughts were racing through the crew's mind. Magno promptly opened up the comm to the Alliance Fleet to alert them of what happed while Bart pushed the _Nirvana_ as fast as it could move though the ice field to reach the predetermined rendezvous point. They didn't have to wait long to realize their worst fear had come true; that today might just be the last time the crew of the ex-pirate ship, _Nirvana_, will ever see their beloved Hibiki Tokai again.

* * *

Scyle dropped down from the air vent and landed softly on the tips of his toes, making practically no sound, even on the metal floors. As he had expected, there wasn't anyone around to alert. Even so, Scyle made a point early on in his life to be cautious, no matter what. Finesse and level headedness kept him a step ahead of his enemies and his allies.

Getting onto the _Sui Generis_ was surprisingly easier than Scyle had originally thought. Perhaps because he knew this as Zeeron's prized flagship, he set his expectations too high. While getting onto the ship was no simple task at all, Scyle was content with having to do less work than he thought.

Upon looking to either end of the hall, the E-Human spotted what he was looking for on the far end of the hall, a computer. It was a simple console for monitoring the pipes and electronics in the sector, but Scyle knew how to change that for what he needed. Determined to take as little time as possible, he hurried to the terminal and gave it a once over before he began typing. Hacking into the system and shutting off all tracers monitoring his console was easy. After a minute, Scyle was in the communications system, ready to transmit and receive messages. He tapped the armor above his wrist, causing a holographic screen to appear with the time displayed.

_It's almost time._

He looked back down the narrow passage to be sure he was alone before turning his attention back to the computer.

After only a minute of waiting, his scheduled message arrived on time. Putting his sharp fingers to the keypad, Scyle began typing again, relaying a passcode for the message to decrypt and transmit. As soon as the decryption ended, words flashed on the bottom of the screen. "Package secured…" was what the text read. "So it begins…" the E-Human murmured.

Scyle disengaged the comm and reset the terminal back to normal settings. With his expected message received, his objective has changed. Scyle darted back down the hall and sprung upwards to grab the lip of the vent opening. With little effort, he pulled himself up into the shaft and reactivated the energy filter that was supposed to deny entry into the vents. He looked down into the maintenance passage to see the lights turn on to maximum luminosity as a pair of workers walked down the hall.

"The Ghost Wolves have agreed to aid the Supreme Commander. I bet we're going to attack the False Humans at their homeworlds soon."

"I hope so. It's been boring since the innies eased up on their attacks."

Scyle shook his head and muttered, "Look up so I have a reason to..."

Once the two were gone, Scyle thought for a moment about what they had said. The Supreme Commander must have revealed something important to gain the trust of the Ghost Wolves already. Since Scyle was already planning on seeking out the soldiers, he saw no problem with figuring out why they would agree to help the Zeeron so soon. He just hoped they were playing along and weren't really planning on aiding the insane dictator.

* * *

"For the last time, we don't know! The Commander said the ship's name was _Hallowed Soul_! That's all we know!" Commander Buzam shouted at the images of the Alliance Fleet's ranking officers and the leaders of Mejere and Taraak.  
"Magno, how can you let some ghost ship disappear with the one person who made all of this possible?" Grand Pa asked with anger.

"We never saw what the ship looked like, how could we have known that someone would try to kidnap one of our own?" Captain Magno calmly replied.

"Damn women, we should have left this task to a male ship!" a Taraakian official shouted.

"It was because they thought it was a male ship that this happened in the first place, fool!" a Mejerian rebutted.

"Taraakian or Mejerian, it makes no difference. Someone deceived us and is trying to split this union apart. Hibiki Tokai is the reason we are all here today and someone is taking advantage of that!" the Admiral of the Melanis Assault Fleet told, trying to get everyone away from wild accusations.

For hours the high command of the newly established Alliance Fleet had been bickering over the disappearance of Hibiki Tokai. The _Nirvana_ had made it to the rendezvous point outside the great ice cloud where the research vessels planned on waiting for them. They only found the two ships completely destroyed. Now everyone was trying to figure out who attacked and why. Grand Ma insisted that the matter be solved or at least some mutual conclusions met before they revealed the news to the Alliance Fleet and the people of Taraak and Mejere. Meia hadn't much to say since the beginning of the meeting, so for the most part, she listened.

"Listen, I know the ships of Earth's fleet like the back of my hand. From what I saw in the recordings, that was not an Earth starship," told Rabat. He had previously worked alongside the Earth Harvest Fleet because he believed they would spare him if he did. Luckily for him, he switched sides before Meia got payback for beating up Hibiki and betraying his own people. The fact that he knew what ships the Earth Harvest Fleet consisted of also made him more valuable than any normal traitor.

"I have to agree," the Melanis Admiral said. "We've fought the Harvest for years and have never seen such a ship. Fusing the Cubes together to mimic other ships is one thing, but they mimic things they've seen before, and that ghost was a ship none of our fleets have."

The image recorded from one of the _Nirvana_'s external cameras had been enhanced enough so that everyone could get a decent look at the alien starship. The ship was long bow to stern and did not bear the same smooth metallic characteristics of a Harvester flagship. The coloring was black instead the expected purple and the features were more pronounced with sharp angles instead of organic curves. Every ship in the Earth fleet's arsenal was based off some sort of sea creature, but Meia knew for a fact that the ghost ship in front of her was not.

One of the Mejerian Admirals asked, "Could it be from another colony? Perhaps Jun or Kassan…"

"Jun, Kassan, Jupiter-II and Cerulea are all glassed. The Red Paksis' _Devastator_ burned them to the ground. There's nothing there," the Admiral from Melanis responded.

"Do you think you women have another pirate ship around?" accused one of the Taraakians.

"The people of Earth, would be the only ones to benefit from capturing Hibiki," Meia retorted. "Look at us. We've been arguing about this for hours with no one to command our fleets in our places and no one keeping watch over our homes. As we all know, this news would damage the moral of everyone this system. The people of Earth just lost their entire fleet in one swoop and you all think they would let this go?" Meia didn't want to get herself worked up, but the constant accusations didn't help her temper.

Speaking for the first time since the beginning of the discussion, Gacogne agreed with Meia and said, "She's right. Maybe for now we should call it a day. We're not finding Hibiki with chit-chat."

"Of course. None of us are going anywhere anyway, so I see no problem with taking a break. We'll resume this meeting first thing in the morning," with that, the Grand Pa's screen winked off.

"Godspeed Grand Ma and Captain Magno, I hope we find the boy soon," the Admiral of Melanis said before switching off his feed. Streaming images of other officials began to disappear until only one remained.

"Magno, what do you think? Do you think the people of Earth are behind this?" questioned Grand Ma. Meia glanced over at her Captain, wondering what she was thinking. The Captain had a good track record when it came to gut feelings, her age and experiences most likely being the source of such a talent.

Magno rubbed her weary eyes and responded, "There's no limit to what people would do to win, even if the fight is over something silly. I have no doubt that we will be seeing the people of our homeland again in this lifetime."

"Hmm," Grand Ma sat in thought. After some time, she gave a slight nod before shutting off her video feed as well.

"Oh silence, how I've missed you," Gascogne stretched before standing up. "Captain, I'm heading back to Reg Central, see you later." Gascogne took only a few steps to the door and then stopped. "You know…" she began. "If the Paksis feeds off of the people it's around, that means the people of Earth are vengeful and stubborn too. They're definitely coming and they're coming soon."

Commanders Buzam and Rebecca looked towards their leader. "Should we prepare for the worst?" Rebecca asked.

"No, we should get some sleep," Magno responded. "I'm just way too damn tired to think."

The two Sub-Commanders looked to one another, unsure of what to say. Without any further thoughts, Buzam simply said, "Yes, Captain. Goodnight." Buzam and Rebecca headed for the door and disappeared behind the automatic doors.

Meia was left alone in the room with Magno as the three left, still sitting arms and legs crossed staring blankly ahead. "Is there something on your mind?" Magno asked the young woman. There were of course a lot of things on Meia's mind.

_How could we have been so stupid? We just got out of a battle and we accept what people tell us as if there were no threats of harvests and genocide? How could I have been so stupid?_

Sitting in her seat trying to work out every detail in her head, she had not noticed the Captain's question. "Meia?"

Suddenly remembering where she was, Meia responded, "Yes, Captain?"

"Is there something on your mind?" Meia knew the Captain was sitting across the table waiting for an answer, the elderly woman very keen on picking up people's distresses. But, Meia wasn't sure what to say.

In the end, she finally settled with, "No, Captain."

She got up and made her way to the door, interrupted when Magno said, "We're going to find him. He's disappeared before as I recall." The Captain gave a slight smile.

"Yeah…" Meia thought for a moment before walking out into the hallway. Not exactly tired or in the mood to eat, Meia headed for the Environment Room, the only place other than her room where she could think in peace.

When Meia entered the artificial forest, she wasn't at all surprised to find Dita there. Leaning against the railing overlooking the pond, the ruby haired girl stared up at the stars. At first, Meia thought about turning around and leaving, but she knew the girl would starve herself to death waiting for her love. Meia took a deep breath before walking over to the girl and taking a spot next to her.

"Dita, you're going to leave an imprint on your arms from leaning on this rail for so long." The girl didn't register any response to Meia's presence. Dita had been this way all day with everyone on the ship worrying about her. She didn't eat, she didn't talk, all she did was stare up at the stars that Hibiki loved so much. In a way, Meia knew how she felt; she knew that same feeling of guilt as if the current situation were her own fault.

Meia looked around, trying to come up with something to say to her friend, but nothing came to mind. The "Victory is Ours!" banners still hung in the air, confetti littered the floor, and food still lined the tables inside of the Environment Room. Everyone was so quick to look for Hibiki that no one had stopped to clean the mess. Meia knew she took notice of these things only to take her mind off of Dita and Hibiki's plight, but she didn't know what else was left to do. The stress of the situation was already wearing everyone down, something that would prove to be dangerous if the people of Earth decided to launch an attack.

"How long do you think Hibiki's gonna take?"

Dita's words caught Meia off guard. Her mind raced to put together a fitting sentence to comfort the girl, but instead, Meia found herself saying, "Not too much longer." A slight smile appeared on Dita's face, suddenly relieving the tension in the air. Meia was able to breathe easier knowing her quick choice of words somewhat brought on a response from the catatonic girl. "He'll be back soon," she reaffirmed, trying to convince herself just as much as the red haired girl. For the rest of the night, the two pilots just stared up at the vastness of space with nothing but the gentle swaying of leaves disturbing the silence.


	3. A Reason to Fight

"This is fucking insane!" Marcus exclaimed, knocking a chair out of his way as he paced around the room. "What kind of fucked up future did we end up in!"

The air was tense in the room and the Captain watched as his team struggled to come to grips with what they had heard a few hours ago. "Marcus, I need you to calm down. We don't want to draw any unwanted attention to ourselves," he calmly told.

Murdock chuckled and said, "Sorry Captain, but we just listened to a bunch of mutants say they were going to kill off every human in the god damn galaxy. I'm about to go back up to the bridge and kill some fucking lizards myself!"

"Hell yeah!" Crispy replied.

"The situation is FUBAR to the highest extent, Captain. What's the plan?" OJ asked, probably keeping as much of his own anger down as possible. Salem leaned against the wall by his bed as he thought.

_Where's a tactical nuke when you need one?_

The Ghost Wolves were inside a barracks set aside for them by the Supreme Commander. The room was clearly made to accommodate twenty people, but only five beds lined either wall. Taking up the walls that otherwise would have been bare were weapons racks, personal dressers and computers for personal use for each of the soldiers. A large screen computer was built into the wall by Salem's bed so that information could be displayed to the whole team easier. The Supreme Commander approved of everything Salem requested for his team and got all of it installed into the room in minutes. Crispy joked that he was playing the "I'm your biggest fan" part a little too much. Salem didn't mind the special treatment. At this point in his life, he was accustomed to it. As long as he got his team as comfortable as they could possibly be around homicidal E-Humans, he did part of his job.

"Listen, Captain, we've got guns here, so I say we storm through this place and detonate some charges in the armories and in the ship's core. Bring this big bitch down!" Crispy suggested, punching his fist into his palm for emphasis.

"The ship is massive, Crispy. I don't know what 3,000 kilometers means to you, but I'm assuming that means a whole army of soldiers that are bigger and stronger than us. Combine that with the thousands of battleships and probably millions of guns aligning all of those ships and we end up with a battle plan where I don't think we'll be getting anywhere even if we made it to the core," OJ informed.

With an almost frightening look in his eyes, Crispy responded, "Who said anything about leaving?"

"You mean keep killing until we take out billions of soldiers or until they take us out? Sounds alright to me," Murdock responded, making a move for the weapon rack behind him.

"No one's going on a killing spree. We're Ghost Wolves, we have a bit more elegance and intelligence than that," Salem asserted, pushing his grenadier away from the guns.

"Judging by the Supreme Commander's playbook here, I don't think we have much time for 'elegance'," Marcus told.

Sergeant Grey was looking through the library of files on the large screen console. Zeeron was very detailed when it came to Operation: Retribution. Everything had been planned out. From unit positions and deployment routes to post-battle plans, everything had been accounted for. Normally, Salem knew it was a rookie mistake to assume an operation would go exactly as planned, but the Supreme Commander's simulations accounted for every possible situation and outcome, every single one of them ending in victory for Earth. The Alliance Fleet was ludicrously outnumbered and outgunned and there was no doubt that the almost barbaric E-Humans fought amongst themselves enough to give them more battle experience than the people of Mejere and Taraak.

Taraakians were adept Vanguard operators and had an impressive standing army. Unlike their female counterparts, they weren't shy to use nuclear weapons if the situation called for it. Unfortunately, beside minor skirmishes and the battle against the Red Paksis' Harvest fleet, they didn't have any real combat experience. They were a militaristic society, but that didn't mean anything if no one knew what to do in a fight.

The women of Mejere, however, were more pilots than soldiers and their strength relied solely on their Navy. The Dreads were impressive starfighters with just as impressive pilots if the videos were anything to go by, but their major flaw was that they were in fact starfighters. An inevitable battle on the surface of Mejere meant the Mejerians would be fighting out of their comfort zone. The boosters on the fighters were made for zero gravity dogfighting and would be less effective on the planet's surface. There couldn't possibly be any way to convince the Taraak leadership to divert all forces to Mejere while Taraak was left wide open for Zeeron to glass it. No matter how they looked at it, the Alliance Fleet was doomed.

"Just look at all of this. The bastard is fucking brilliant. Everything is mapped out!" Marcus said, leaning back in his chair and looking to the Captain.

"There _is_ one thing that can really screw up the SC's plans," Salem rebutted. "The kid."

"Tokai isn't a one man army, Captain. He and his team did some phenomenal work against the Harvest, but they're still a bunch of kids," OJ answered.

"So were we when we became Wolves," Crispy reminded.

The corporal was right, an oddity for the man. With Salem as the oldest one of the group, the Ghost Wolves couldn't exactly say they weren't young. If they could get through the situations they had gotten through at such young ages, the pirates of the _Nirvana_ could too. The only difference was that the odds were much different for the young pirates.

"Hey, they got the Paksis, right? The simulations say nothing about the Vandreads," Crispy reminded.

"Wow, you actually noticed that? And here I thought you were a fucking retard," Marcus remarked.

"Shut up and listen for a sec," the corporal walked over to the screen and cycled through multiple strategic plans. "Everything the SC needs is accounted for already, with the exception of 5th Fleet, you see? He's got more than enough guys to attack Mejere and Taraak with and he knows it, so why hasn't done it yet?"

"That's because Zeeron is waiting for something," an unfamiliar voice said.

Startled by the unknown voice, the Ghost Wolves spun around to see an E-Human standing arms crossed on the far side of the room. There were no doorways into the room other than the one behind Salem, so he had to admire the warrior's skill. The E-Human didn't have on the head piece that all the other soldiers had and his thinner and less shiny armor was definitely out of the ordinary. His scales were a pale blue, but he had streaks of red running down either side of his face, coloring some of the spines on his head the same color.

Murdock and Crispy had Plasma Repeaters leveled at the E-Human, who didn't appear to be fazed by the unfriendly welcome. The unknown warrior said in a cool tone, "Zeeron sent his best spook to find Hibiki and his Vanguard. My men on that ship tell me he was successful and is on his way back." The man took a few steps towards the Ghost wolves, his palms up to show he wasn't trying anything. Deciding that the man had important enough knowledge, Salem indulged in the conversation.

"So, he's banking everything on some black op mission?"

"Indeed. I'm sure you've seen what he and his friends could do."

Salem was intrigued by the E-Human's calm and inside knowledge. He wondered how long the man had been listening to him and his men. "We have, but I don't think they can win a war by themselves."

"You underestimate not their machines, but their hearts. They've already decided they would not bend to the will of people millions of light-years away. It was the resolve of Hibiki and his words that drove all of them to fight. That's why Hibiki's capture has already struck a blow to the crew of the _Nirvana_. They relied on him too heavily and once everyone finds out, the collapse will begin. The Alliance will tear itself apart before the Earth Fleet even jumps into the system."

"Then we need to get the kid back to his friends before the operation begins."

"My thoughts exactly."

Crispy stood and looked around as if he expected to find hidden cameras. "I'm sorry, but who the hell are you? Where did you come from?" he demanded.

The E-Human stepped forward and gave the gesture of respect all E-Humans gave, bowing his head and putting his right fist to his chest. "I'm Scyle Feron, ex-Special Operations Lieutenant and leader of Ashes of Humanity, an insurrectionist group on mother Earth."

"Ex-Spec Op huh?" OJ looked to the others for their input, clearly impressed.

"Correct. I'd probably be on the mission I told you of if I hadn't broken away from Zeeron's legion years ago."

Now that Scyle had revealed who he was, Salem wanted to know what he wanted. "I suppose you came running when you heard of our arrival," he guessed.

"Of course. I've been hopping from ship to ship for years. It's hard to keep track of one traitor among millions of soldiers," Scyle told.

"Having to keep tabs on the high command probably doesn't make things any easy," Murdock added.

"No it doesn't, but it reveals new opportunities." Scyle walked over to the big console and began typing in commands as he spoke. "Commander Prowl, the Spec Op tasked with capturing Hibiki, was just readying his ship for ABH travel when I received word of his success. I have sleeper cells working as engineers, many of whom work close enough to the core to get in. Seeing as you have plenty of weapons here, I'm sure you can spare some explosives for my men."

"Taking out the _Sui Generis_ isn't going to be enough. We need to take down as much of this fleet as we can," warned Salem.

The Captain noticed his men had lowered their weapons and were all crowded around the console screen as schematics of the ships displayed.

"My men onboard other ships will get the provisions they need on their own, it's only here that's a problem. You supply us and we'll make enough noise to distract the fleet as you get Hibiki out of here."

"What, just like that?" Crispy said. "It sounds like you guys were already capable of sabotaging the fleet."

"We were, but my men and I didn't become insurrectionists to throw our lives away and hope to be martyrs. We needed a solid reason to launch an attack, and now we have one."

Salem felt as if time had been on fast-forward since he woke from cryo. On the eve of a war he knew nothing of a day ago, Salem needed more rest than he had gotten. Motivation waning, Salem asked, "Why are you going out of your way to save the citizens of other worlds, Scyle? I understand fighting a tyrannical regime on your own world, by why help the others?"

Scyle stopped typing when he heard the inquiry and took a deep breath. He turned to Salem and replied, "My people… our people are dying because of mistakes they've made in the past. Evolved or not, humans do just that. I monitored what the Harvest did to Cerulea and set foot on its surface in the aftermath of its annihilation. What haunts me to this day is that I still don't know what's worse, committing genocide against fellow humans because they chose to live or harvesting our own race like cattle. After the mission to Cerulea, I and the entire crew that had been with me broke away from the Earth Fleet. After much debate we finally agreed to put an end to the Supreme Commander's rule. We had been reborn from the ashes of the people we killed and we knew we had to avenge them. Saving the people of Melanis, Taraak and Mejere is the only way we can truly save Earth from itself. If we all die to send Hibiki back home, so be it. I'll kill as many of my brainwashed brethren as it takes to see my home restored to the glorious world it used to be."

When the Captain had enlisted in the United Republic Army a century and a half ago, he did so because of what was happening to Earth. Humans had destroyed the environment and the only way it was going to get any better was if people fought to get it that way. Scyle's motives were no different and that's why Salem understood his actions.

"Defend our world from enemies, foreign and domestic," Salem remembered the words from the oath he swore in the graduation ceremony.

The rest of the Ghost Wolves replied in unison, "Hooah."

Scyle nodded in agreement with those words and replied, "And defend it we shall."

* * *

Hibiki awoke when a sudden immense pain spread across his ribs. "Wake up! Nap time's over!" Before he could get a grip on his surroundings, Hibiki was grabbed by the arms and pulled off of his bed. He could feel sharp objects digging into his wrists and he looked to see what was happening. Upon seeing the large lizard-like men, Hibiki recalled everything that had happened.

The hangar of _Hallowed Soul_ had no doors but an energy barrier that he could fly right through. He remembered thinking that there was no way a Taraakian built the ship because it was so different in terms of appearance. Once he landed in the odd hangar, he knew he was in trouble. The reptilian men surrounded his Vanguard with weapons in arms. Blocking his immediate way out of the hold were three Vanguards bearing insignias that he had not seen before. "Alright, who's first!" he had shouted at them, his Vanguard reaching for the hilt of its plasma sword. That's when the electricity surged through the ship. His entire body felt as if it were on fire as the systems within the ship shut off and the humanoid mech fell over.

Hibiki's body was still aching from the attack and he could only try to keep on his feet as the warriors led him down the hall. As he traversed the inside of the ship, many of the reptilians passed, all of them sneering at the boy and insulting him. "Useless, even with his corrupt machine," one said.

"Hard to believe he piloted that thing," remarked another.

_Do these things know me?_

Hibiki had no idea what was going on or why he was taken captive by the aliens, but based on what they said, it seemed it had something to do with the Red Harvest. They constantly referred to his friends as "False Humans" yet called him a "True Human", mostly with a negative adjective added before the title.

"What are you guys?" he croaked.

"Shut it!" barked the creature he didn't know was behind him, hitting the back of Hibiki's head with the stock of his weapon.

"The traitor doesn't even know his own people," one of the lizards chuckled.

_My own people? What the…_

The armored warriors stopped before a pair of double-set doors and turned to face Hibiki. "Stand tall!" one shouted before punching him, the creature's fist covering nearly half of his face. Hibiki fell to the floor and for a moment, blacked out. He was awake again as soon as they yanked him back to his feet, laughter filling the air. "You see? Weak, just like his allies," the attacker mused.

"You're lucky I'm already weak," Hibiki groaned, still able to keep his wit. "You should try hitting harder next time, my sinuses need clearing."

"Sure!"

The warrior had only cocked his arm back when someone shouted, "Enough!"

Instantly, the warriors put their backs to the walls and put their right fists to their chests. Hibiki was too weak to turn to see who they were saluting, so he waited for the person to step in front of him. The reptilian in black armor looked down on Hibiki with teeth bared.

"What are you smiling at?" Hibiki groaned, unsure if the thing was actually smiling.

"Just marveling at my catch," the lizard man said. "You can call me Commander Prowl, just in case you want to remember who's responsible for your downfall before they execute you." To Hibiki, everyone sounded like they were growling at him. Considering the way they treated him, he wouldn't be surprised if they were. Prowl straightened himself out and informed, "The Supreme Commander has awaited your arrival, Hibiki. Show some respect when you're in his presence." With a nudge in the back from the barrel of a gun, Hibiki followed the Commander into the room ahead.

The dark room was filled with lizard men. Unlike the ones he saw before, the reptilians in this room had more ornately designed armors and some even wore capes. Immediately after entering the room, Hibiki wanted to leave. As more of them noticed his arrival, more began to growl and glare at him. It was then that Hibiki realized they had glowing eyes. The dozens of red irises looking down on him frightened him more than he could imagine, but he knew he had to stand tall. Hibiki stood as straight as he could, despite the pain and walked on past the ill-tempered beasts.

"My liege, I've brought Hibiki Tokai as you requested," reported Commander Prowl as he knelt to the floor. From the mass of creatures came a reptilian that was larger than the rest, one with a scar running down the side of its snout.

Hibiki had only gotten a glimpse of what he looked like before the being dashed at him and ripped him from the floor by his throat. "So, you're the one. The one who leads the traitors," the beast growled, tightening his grip on Hibiki's throat as the boy dangled in the air. Hibiki felt pressure building in his head as his airways closed up. He tried to fight back, but the monster was stronger than anything he had ever experienced. The beast's claws dug into his neck, adding to the agonizing pain the young man was feeling. His arms started to feel like noodles as his vision darkened and eventually he couldn't even lift his arms. Only when he was moments from blacking out did the reptilian release his grip, letting Hibiki collapse on the floor gasping for air. "If you think that's pain, then you're in for a treat when we visit your new home," the lizard man said.

The sound of the automatic doors opening caused Hibiki to look back as he knelt on the ground. Five men walked into the room and surrounded him, one of them shaking his head in disapproval of what he saw. "He's kind of short isn't he?" one commented, the reflection of light from the hallway shining in his glasses. On any other day, Hibiki would have attacked him for insulting his size, but today wasn't the day to do so. Even from the silhouettes of the men, Hibiki could tell they weren't like the other creatures. They were human like he was and from the looks of things, unharmed. These five men were definitely not captives like was. The largest of the group pulled Hibiki off the ground, using noticeably less force than everyone else had so far.

"Short or not, the kid's an ace pilot," the man said, pushing Hibiki along as the men joined the lizards around the large table in the center of the room.

"His Vanguard is the only place his skill comes from," Prowl corrected, a hint of annoyance seeping through his snarled tone.

"A bot only does what it's told, Prowlie. Don't forget that," said the man with glasses. The blue glow of the table illuminated Commander Prowl's irritated expression, amusing the teen a bit.

"Well he's here, sir. How long until D-Day?" asked a man with a long black scarf around his neck.

"We're still waiting on 5th fleet's arrival from the Almaa system. Apparently Melanis was much easier to take than they had thought. They're just about done glassing its surface."

The words tore though Hibiki's chest like a dagger. With despair, Hibiki asked, "You destroyed Melanis?" fearing he already knew the answer.

"We needed a test run. Melanis is the only planet besides Taraak and Mejere we haven't destroyed yet," said the large reptilian.

"The imbeciles were foolish to direct their whole fleet to Taraak and Mejere because not only were casualties kept under one thousand, but it appears we'll be getting our first batch of test subjects much sooner than we thought, gentlemen!" the leader said. The others cheered and applauded at the news, including four of the five humans.

"What are you talking about? What are you planning on doing?" Hibiki demanded, struggling against the grip of the people holding him in place.

"Commander Prowl, I'm assuming Mr. Tokai is still unaware as to who we are?" queried the large lizard.

"Yes, he's still in the dark, as it were."

Hibiki was disturbed by the broad smile that crossed the large monster's face. What news could the creatures be possibly keeping from him? Whether he wanted to know or not, Hibiki was going to find out very soon.

Taking a few steps forward the lizard began, "First off, I'm Zeeron Virmire, Supreme Commander of Earth and all her fleets and colonies. You and your friends have committed treason against the home of your ancestors and there for must be punished." With every bit of strength left in him, Hibiki broke away from the grips of the two warriors and sprinted towards Zeeron. Only a few feet away from him, Hibiki was suddenly stopped when the man with the scarf stepped in front of him, bringing his knee upwards into the boy's gut. Gasping for air yet again, Hibiki body quaked with fury.

One of the humans remarked, "Not very civil, is he?"

"You're not human! There's no way you're from Earth!" Hibiki groaned while he was picked up off the floor.

"If you don't believe him, look at the facts," told the man with the scarf. He motioned for Hibiki to look to the table, prompting images to appear, showing the people of Earth as they changed in the last century and a half.

Like a tidal wave, the data streaming across the table was too much. Everything Misty's parents had warned about was right. The new humans grew in strength as every one of them was conscripted into the military regime. Executions played out before him, the fate of anyone who spoke out against the Supreme Commanders. Zeeron Virmire was the second to take power in this sadistic government. The sickness, the death, everything Hibiki saw sickened him.

"Humans aren't monsters!" he yelled. "We wouldn't commit genocide against our own!"

With a touch of amusement, Zeeron said, "Oh, but we have…"

More images of conflicts past played out before the horrified boy. The war, the destruction, images of mass graves and concentration camps, everything before Hibiki brought him to his knees. As he watched, the teen found he was unable to put words together. "Stop," he muttered, eyes still glued to the display. Pictures and recordings of death and tragedy continued to flash before his eyes. Explosions of cataclysmic proportions tore apart cities and manmade fires burned down jungles and woodlands. With the showcase finally becoming unbearable, Hibiki screamed, "Stop!" In the blink of an eye, the room was silent again, the historical footage gone at last. The horror and fear that gripped the young man's body replaced all rage and hatred within him.

"Humans are inherently evil, Hibiki," said the man with the scarf as he knelt in front of him.

The man's face and voice were devoid of all emotion. Only the chilling look in his dark eyes gave away his feelings. "That's why we have to do this. There are billions of people on Earth, all of them left behind by the people occupying the two worlds your friends call home. They didn't fight the Harvest because they didn't want to die; they did so because they thought the humans on Earth were beneath them."

Getting pulled off the ground once more, Hibiki saw the Supreme Commander standing behind the soldier. "You'll watch, from this ship, as we purge the galaxy of your genocidal allies, using only the remains to rebuild our dying world," Zeeron informed.

Hibiki stood silent, mouth partly agape. There was nothing he could do or say. The people of Taraak never spoke of such terrible things before. Did they not know or was this deliberate? What about the women of Mejere? What about Dita? Questions clouded Hibiki's mind, questions he didn't want answers to.

_Could they be right? If they sought to kill humans, then these five men would be restrained like me. Maybe we are the ones…_

"It seems the boy's got nothing left to say," Commander Prowl observed.

"As it would seem," the Supreme Commander concurred. "Send him back to the brig. There's nothing left to tell him," he ordered.

The clawed hands of the E-Humans grabbed Hibiki by the biceps and led him out of the room. His mind screamed for him to say something, anything before he was whisked away, but nothing came to him. All he could think about was Dita, the Captain and everyone else that had depended on him. They were all going to be killed and there was nothing he could do.

Thoughts racing, Hibiki glanced over his shoulder to get a look at the E-Human leaders. They all had their attention focused on the projections above the table. It was as if they had already forgotten Hibiki existed. Just before the doors closed, Hibiki noticed only five of the people were looking back at him. The five humans were all watching him as he left. The man with the black scarf relayed an intense look in his eyes, yet something was different. The heartless stare he portrayed to Hibiki before was gone, replaced with something else. Sorrow.


	4. Call to Action

The shuttle ride to the surface of Mejere was a short one for the small group leaving the _Nirvana_. Early in the morning, Admiral Visalia of the Melanic Fleet and the leaders of Taraak and Mejere asked that the follow-up meeting concerning the disappearance of Hibiki take place where everyone could speak in person. The Palace of Grand Ma, after some debate for sure, was the chosen location. Meia just wished that she had gotten more sleep. If yesterday's meeting was anything to go by, nothing was going to be accomplished today.

"Alright, ladies, hang on. We're just about to break free from the atmosphere," warned Gascogne as she and Buzam piloted the shuttle downward to their destination. The red flames caused from the friction of the shuttle's hull and the ozone layer was decreasing as far as Meia could tell from looking out the window. The rattling that accompanied atmospheric penetration suddenly dissipated when the ship caught the first winds of the surface.

"How long until we're there?" groaned Jura, looking queasy from the ride already.

"Just look outside to keep your mind off it," Meia advised.

Seemingly unsatisfied with the answer, Jura took the Squadron Leader's advice and looked outside. "Oh my god!" The sickly expression suddenly vanished from her face. "It's beautiful!"

Meia had only seen videos and pictures of the capitol of Mejere, but she had to agree that seeing Halo City with her own eyes was magnificent. Rolling green plains of grass stretched out for miles with no farms or anything in sight for kilometers, the same grass her mother's research had helped create. A single eight-lane highway was the only thing leading from the distant horizon to the circle shaped city. The road formed into an arc shaped bridge that spanned the ten kilometer wide bay on the southern end of the city then continued on through the center of the city as its main street. Skyscrapers and spires nearly reaching one-hundred stories touched every portion of the city, all of them shimmering and golden in the light of the sunrise. The tallest structure, the Nova Building, stood near the center of the city. The black tower stood at nearly 120 stories tall, making it the tallest building on both Mejere and Taraak. Meia had dreamt of standing atop the ebony structure as a child, a wish that came back to her when she gazed upon the woman-made beauty before her. There couldn't possibly be any place more deserving of the name Halo City than the one resting beneath the shuttle.

With a nudge, Captain Magno pulled the young woman's attention away from her daydreams and gestured for her to look in another direction. Reading the awe displayed on her face, Magno said with a smile, "You think that's impressive? Take a look over there." Meia looked to the northernmost portion of the city to see what the Captain spoke of.

Main Street divided the city in half and led straight to the enormous fortified home of Mejere's supreme leader. While not nearly as tall as the other buildings in the city, the massive Palace of Grand Ma was where the elderly leader of the female planet took residence and where most political affairs were maintained. The planet's grand court was also located within the ivory and gold walls of the palace, home to the Mejerian senate. The dome in the center of the structure, judging by its size, was most certainly where Meia and the others were headed after they land.

The shuttle shifted as the pilots changed course, now facing the palace.

"Isn't the starport on the east end of the city?" Meia asked the Captain.

"Last time I was here, it was," the Captain replied. "Why don't you see what's up, for me," the Captian requested.

With a nod, Meia unbuckled herself and held onto the overhead railing as she made her way to the cockpit of the ship.

"Hey, Meia! Just in time to see us land," Gascogne greeted upon seeing the Squadron Leader.

"Where are we going? I thought the starport was that way," Meia asked, gesturing over her shoulder.

"It is, but we just got clearance from the Palace Guard to land in Grand Ma's private port," told Buzam.

"Looks like we got bumped up to first-class," Meia remarked with a smirk.

The spacious plaza occupying the space in front of the palace was filled with people. From the looks of things, they were all clamoring to know what was going on inside the palace. With so many ships landing on the premises, more than any time before, it seemed that the meeting of the Alliance Fleet's leaders wouldn't go unnoticed this time.

The crimson shuttle circled the landing pad once before descending downward. Meia took note of the array of anti-aircraft/starcraft weaponry lining the walls around the palace. Also waiting outside of the ship as it landed were dozens of Grand Ma's personal guards.

"Wow, we get escort too. How lovely," Gascogne shook her head. "Sarcasm aside, I don't think we should keep them waiting."

"I'll get the others," Meia told, heading back to the cabin of the shuttle. Jura, Rebecca and the Captain were already on their feet, but one other was still sitting. Meia followed the Captain's gaze to the forlorn girl sitting at the far end of the ship. She had almost forgotten that she convinced Dita to come along with them. Were it not for the current predicament, the girl probably would have been admiring the sights as much as everyone else.

"You girls should get going," the Captain told. "I'll be with you in a minute." After a slight hesitation, Jura nudged Meia and motioned for her to follow.

The next few minutes were occupied with security protocol and seemingly endless walking. The guards ran the group through security checkpoints and escorted them down the lavishly decorated halls of the Palace of Grand Ma. With Palace Guards every step of the way, it was obvious that the security of Grand Ma was their biggest concern, even after what had been accomplished days ago.

"There's no way Grand Ma does all of this walking, so why do we?" Jura complained.

"I bet you Grand Pa's place on Taraak is just as big," commented Rebecca.

Jura showed a look of disgust, muttering, "Politicians… Well at least they have style." Grand Pa and Grand Ma had both proven over time that they were proud, much like their son. There was no doubt in Meia's mind that the palace was created out of that pride.

The next turn brought the group into a hall much larger than the others they had been through. The ceiling reached higher than before, but Meia couldn't tell how high it went. Holographic projections of space and random phenomena of the universe played out overhead complete with high quality sound effects, something out of place since there was no sound in space. Exploding stars, gas giants and black holes displayed the awesome and mysterious power of the universe, power only Paksis Pragma could possibly understand. The walk down the lengthy passage was almost coming to an end as the enormous double set doors on the far end came near. Meia looked back at Dita to see her staring up at the artificial stars as well. It wasn't hard to figure out where Hibiki had gotten his love of space from.

The hinged doors to the grand court opened slowly as the ex-pirates neared. "Does my hair look good?" Jura asked, franticly running her fingers through her blonde locks.

"You look fine, Jura, cut it out!" Rebecca said in a hushed tone, slapping the young woman's hand away.

The voices of hundreds of men and women filled the air as the group entered the domed room. The stands all around the room were filled with military leaders and state officials, all already in conversation. It seemed that most of them were unsure as to what had happened the other day, meaning the Alliance Fleet's high command decided to let a larger audience know what they knew.

"I thought we were early," Buzam shouted to Meia and the others over the roar of voices.

"Let's just hope we get the good seats," Gascogne joked.

"Careful what you wish for…" Meia pointed out the vacant seats towards the center of the political arena. Their seats were in front of the illuminated section where the highest leaders of the Alliance Fleet sat.

"Why does this all look familiar," Magno muttered, referring to when the crew of the _Nirvana_ was put on trial and accused of treason.

As the seven of them took their seats, a man stood and motioned for the conglomerate to be silent. Slowly but surely, everyone in the room began quiet down. Meia took note of the closed doors behind her and complete lack of reporters. This meeting was still secret, or at least its contents were.

Once complete silence filled the chamber, Grand Pa of Taraak stood. A machine amplifying his voice, the man told, "Leaders of the newly established Alliance Fleet, I apologize for the short notice of this conference so early in the morning, but I hope that you will all understand as soon as you hear what we have to say." Pausing to be sure he had everyone's attention, the aged leader of Taraak continued. "I regret to inform you that the purpose of this meeting is of a grave nature. At approximately 2:30 yesterday afternoon, the crew of the starship _Nirvana_, our heroes of the battle past, made contact with an unknown entity inside the ice cloud on the edge of our system. This starship, claimed to be the Taraakian research frigate we had set aside for the observation of the _Nirvana_ for the men of my world and the women of Grand Ma's world. The supposed researchers requested the presence of Hibiki Tokai, the young man responsible for our unity. After boarding the unknown frigate, the so-called _Hallowed Soul_ departed the system by means we still cannot comprehend, but not before taking Hibiki Tokai with them and destroying the true research ships from Mejere and Taraak."

The grand court grew louder as people began voicing their dissent. Grand Ma quickly stood and waved for everyone to sit back down, hoping to keep the audience from panic. "We don't know who's responsible for this deliberate attack on the Alliance, but we suspect they are not one of our own." A massive three dimensional hologram suddenly appeared in the center of the chamber about twelve meters off the ground, bathing everything in the room in a dark blue. The model was a presumption of what the actual ship looked like based off of the recordings from the _Nirvana_. Meia had to admit she was impressed with the attention to detail.

Continuing on for Grand Ma, Admiral Visalia of the Melanic fleet informed, "This is what we believe the ship looks like. As you all can see, it bears no markings or visual identification. Besides that fact, this ship is obviously not one from our worlds and the ship also looks nothing like our recently defeated foes from the Earth Harvest Fleet. Furthermore, the frigate appeared to use a system of transportation unlike anything we've ever seen. Top physicists and scientists in the fields involving space travel and other phenomena among the stars are still trying to figure out what exactly happened when the alien vessel left. The only conclusions drawn so far are that the occurrence released massive amounts of energy afterwards and that a singularity may have been involved."

While the three leaders of the three worlds continued giving out information and speculations, Jura asked Meia in a low tone, "What the hell's a singularity?"

"A black hole."

"Is that possible? The idea of creating one sounds farfetched enough, but being able to control one to send you where you want to go?"

"No it's not…" Meia took another second to rethink her answer, recalling after a few seconds, "Then again, there is one thing that can create one on its own."

By the look on Jura's face, Meia could tell she realized what she meant. "Still think Earth might be behind this?"

Without a second thought, Meia replied, "Definitely."

"How long until we send out our fleets to find Hibiki?" asked Magno.

"Until we understand the nature of the kidnapping, no ships will be allowed to leave Alliance space." Cries of discontent filled the air.

"They can't keep us here!" Rebecca said, looking to Magno for her opinion.

"But, what if he's in danger? We can't sit around waiting for scientists to conjure up some bullshit while your son is missing," Buzam shouted. Meia rarely saw the Sub-Commander get emotional and was surprised by the sudden outburst. But, Buzam was right.

"If our unknown enemy wanted to attack, they'd try to divert our forces elsewhere. Taking Hibiki was their chance to do just that," Admiral Visalia responded.

"We've already gotten a rough glimpse of what our enemy can do, underestimating them now would be a huge mistake!" a male from the crowd shouted.

"That's exactly why we need to keep all available cruisers and warships in the system!" another rebutted. The room erupted with shouts and disagreements as more and more people began voicing their opinions.

"This is insane. Captain…" Meia leaned in to speak to Magno over all the yelling. "I think I have an idea about the enemy. It's about the Paksis."

Magno grunted in agreement, looking to the blue haired girl and saying, "The stuff about the black holes got you thinking too, I see." Meia should have known the Captain was already a step ahead of her. "Once all this nonsense is dealt with, we're heading straight back to the ship," the Captain told her Sub-Commanders.

Jura shook her head, warning, "Sooner would be better, or else they might try to confiscate the ship too."

Meia muttered, "Wouldn't be the first time."

Amidst the commotion, the double set doors to the grand court opened up. A middle-aged woman looking more panicked than anyone Meia had ever seen ran into the room. Ignoring the chaotic shouts of the congregation, she darted past the _Nirvana_ crew members and climbed onto the stage to speak to the high command directly. At first the leaders of the Alliance didn't seem deterred by what the woman had to say. It wasn't until their expressions changed to sudden horror that Meia became worried. Admiral Visalia stood hurriedly, knocking his chair over in the process. His face read despair and shock as he seemed to plead with the woman. The messenger shook her head in response and looked down to the floor, her body trembling. The Admiral then slowly sat back down and stared blankly at the ground.

"I think the situation just got worse," Meia informed, motioning towards the leaders of the Alliance.

While an aide pulled the distraught woman aside, Grand Ma called for silence, switching off the holographic ship to catch everyone's attention. Waiting until everyone was seated again, the leader of Mejere spoke. "We have just gotten word that the planet, Melanis has been or is currently under attack."

Gasps and murmurs filled the air in response to the shocking news. The words had sent a shiver down Meia's spine. What she and everyone had feared was becoming reality.

"A damaged message pod was recovered just outside of the great ice cloud by a Mejerian freighter. We're going to play the message for you to hear for yourselves." Grand Ma nodded to someone off to the side after taking her seat, appearing as distressed as the rest of the high command.

Static filled the air as the audio message played, a sign of significantly damaged code. Whatever the pod went through, it must have been hell, else there would have been video too. As the static continued a man began to speak. "This is Captain Halson of the 2nd Melanic Defense Fleet, requesting immediate reinforcements! The planet is under attack by unknown hostiles! Their tech is way beyond the shit I've seen and they're boarding our ships and taking control of our orbital platforms!" A garbled explosion could be heard in the background, accompanied by the Captain cursing.

"Someone get that damn fire out!" another person shouted. Other voices could be heard in the background, but most of them were indecipherable between the static and gathered noise.

"We had them outnumbered, but they took out most of the fleet in a matter of minutes! We've also got unconfirmed reports of them dropping troops in urban centers and taking prisoners both civilian and enlisted!" The man's voice was hoarse and sounded as if he'd been barking orders for hours. The most obvious thing Meia could tell was that he sounded desperate.

After another grouping of explosions, someone was screaming in the background. "Sir, look! They're burning the planet! They're burning the fucking planet!"

"Incoming! Two of them are peeling off and heading right for us! Get the fuck out of here!" As everyone was screaming and panicking in the background, the man continued with his pleas. "If anyone gets this, send us some goddamn help!"

"Port side's been hit, stability is dropping!"

"We're getting pulled into the atmosphere!" a woman yelled.

"General Order 1-2-1, everyone is to abandon ship! Get to the escape pods, go!" Halson shouted at his crew. There was a few more seconds of screaming and noise before the Captain had cut the feed.

The stunned silence clutching the chamber might as well have lasted an eternity. Fully aware that the message pod would have taken weeks to be received, Meia knew in her heart that Melanis was gone. The nightmare that had attacked them not only tore through the planet's defenses, but took whole ships and populations captive. Such a coordinated strike seemed impossible, even with the communications technology at hand. For the first time, Meia noticed her hands were shaking and that sweat was accumulating on her brow. She hadn't been this frightened since the first time she had seen a harvester flagship.

"It's clear what we have to do now, isn't it?" Meia turned to see Dita standing, her focus directed to the high command. "They're coming, the ones who took Hibiki and destroyed Melanis. The people of Earth are retaliating against us for going against their wishes and destroying their fleet." Dita spoke even louder to address the whole crowd as she continued. "But, they don't know have a clue as to how strong we are! They have no idea what we can do together! We were outnumbered when we faced the Harvest and we won as well! Hearing this message, I know that the coming storm will be a challenge unlike any other we've faced! This isn't a test to see how powerful our fleets are or how many ships we have, it's a test to see how strong our will to live is!" Dita put a hand on Magno's shoulder and smiled down on her. "Isn't that what Hibiki would say?"

Magno smiled back with a nod. "Yes he would."

Turning her attention back to the occupants of the grand court, Dita said, "You can't change your future with one battle and think everything will be okay from then! We're fighting a war and the costs will be great, but that's why we have to fight! Saying we won't tolerate the people of Earth and their Harvest isn't enough to stop what's coming; we have to fight as we did before and we have to continue to do so until they lose or we do!"

"We'll fight them for the people of Melanis!" a woman shouted.

"No surrender!" another agreed. The rumbling of applause and cheer grew in the domed room.

Gascogne clapped her hands as well, saying, "Looks like the next few days are gonna be busy."

Meia's fears melted away under the excitement in the air. "Captain, what exactly did you say to her on the shuttle?" she asked.

"I just told her to think as if her love was right by her side, told her that their bond was greater than any force out there."

"Well it worked and not just for her," Jura stated.

"Whether or not these people are rallied, we still don't stand a chance against what may be headed our way if we don't find that young man." The Captain may have looked joyful on the outside, but Meia knew she was serious. The Vandreads were needed more than ever, but they couldn't be used until they found Hibiki. Obeying Magno's previous orders, the seven made their way back to their shuttle and ascended into the clouds above Halo City.

* * *

The white glow of the Paksis Pragma bathed the circular room as if it were the sun in the center of a hollow sphere. Crystals clung to the walls, ceilings and floors, natural formations born from the pure energy of the godlike entity sitting in the core of the _Nirvana_. But even with the immense power within the room, the air was cool, a little too cool to be wearing a dress in. Leaning against the railing of a single catwalk that spanned the massive room was the pilot of the _Red Claw_ herself. Jura felt nostalgic whenever she was in the ship's core. The room housing the Paksis was where she and her Dread changed forever. She, Dita, Meia, Hibiki and even Bart and Pyoro were all transformed when they weathered the nuclear blast of the muramasa missiles inside this very chamber. With all the good that came from that pivotal moment, it made her wonder, what if she had gotten out of the way in time? Would they have made it this far without Vandread-Jura?

"Seems like it was years ago, doesn't it?"

Jura was startled by the sudden arrival of the other two female Vandread pilots and the two-foot-tall robot, Pyoro. Dita was smiling once again and Meia, to Jura's surprise, was also smiling.

_That's gonna take some getting used to._

Stepping away from the handrail, Jura observed, "Looks like we're all here."

"Again like always," Meia replied.

By the look on Dita's face, the happiness she had earlier had vanished. "Not everyone…" she corrected, her eyes to her feet.

Jura put her arm around the girl and smiled down on her. "That's why we're here."

"Then we should get started," insisted Meia. Nodding in agreement, the three looked to Pyoro for the next step.

"I can't just connect to the Paksis, you got to talk to it," he told. "It'll only sync with me if it has something to say." Jura looked to the others, unsure of what to say.

"Okay…" Meia stepped up to the railing and gazed at the enormous pulsing orb occupying most of the room. "I'm sure you're well aware of what's happened, so I'm going to be blunt. That ship that took Hibiki away, was it from Earth?" They stood waiting for answer, but nothing happened. Pyoro was still Pyoro and the Paksis did didn't change color or beat.

"Black holes… There have only been three made artificially that I know of." Jura went on to explain, "One was from you when we all first met on this ship a year ago. The second was when your other half tried to destroy the system a few days ago. The third was yesterday, when that ship took Hibiki."

Meia continued in Jura's place and asked, "That ship was made by the Red Paksis, wasn't it?"

A pair of bleeps came from Pyoro and suddenly the electrical current in the air seemed to intensify as the robot rose from the ground and hovered at eye level with the women. His digital eyes were gone and his screen/face was all white with static. The Paksis was taking control of the robot again, an event that made Jura's hairs stand on end.

_I'm never getting used to that._

"Earth humans are angry. Revenge is all they seek," the emotionless words came forth from Pyoro.

"How do you know?" asked Dita.

"I felt it. When we fought, I felt its anger and resentment. I felt where its rage came from. Such fury is what drives those born of the cradle world."

The blonde shook her head and responded, "But we destroyed the Red Paksis and the harvester flagships, how can the Harvest continue?"

"Not a Harvest, but worse."

"What's coming?"

"Annihilation."

Meia was surely disturbed by the Paksis' words as she grabbed Pyoro and raised her voice when she talked. "Why are you saying that? You know that's not going to happen!" For a moment, Jura thought she was about to start shaking the robot in frustration.

"I felt the anger of billions, numbers that are greater than your own."

"We've been outmatched before and won. Don't you remember?" Jura reminded, her hands on her hips.

"You gave us the Vandreads for a reason. We can't use them without Hibiki," added Dita, speaking to the Paksis Pragma itself and not Pyoro.

Jura agreed and added, "Only you can take us to Hibiki in time. If something's coming, as you say, then we're going to have to act fast. We just need you on our side."

"Friends protect friends," the Paksis replied through Pyoro's robotic voice.

Meia released the robot, saying, "Our friend and yours is out there and needs help. We have to find him before it's too late for all of us."

_Fight as one._

Jura fixed her emerald eyes to the Paksis and said, "If we're all not together, we're all going to die."

With no prior warning, Pyoro dropped back to the metal floor. Meia dove for the machine before it rolled off the edge of the catwalk. The Paksis Pragma began glowing brighter than it had before and the _Nirvana_ began to shake.

"What the hell's it doing?" Jura shouted as she grabbed a hold of the railing.

"Look, the crystals!" Dita pointed to the growths on the walls. The crystalline structures were growing rapidly and were beginning to push through the walls of the structure holding the Paksis in place.

_Is it changing the ship again?_

Dita screamed as the crystals twisted the catwalk on the far end, slowly tilting the rest of the walkway over. "Go, get out of here!" Meia grabbed Jura by the shoulder and pushed for her go leave.

"Hey, what about Pyoro?" the blonde shouted as she and the others ran. Meia scooped up Pyoro midstride and ran with him to the exit. It was times like this that the _Red Claw_ pilot wished she didn't wear expensive dresses and high heels everywhere she went. Barely keeping balance, she and the other two pilots burst into the hallway just as the catwalk collapsed behind them.

Jura had only just gotten to the hallway outside when she saw Parfet and other engineers rushing towards them. "What the hell did you do in there?" she yelled at them.

"I don't know, we were just talking and it freaked out!" Jura wished she had a better description, but that was basically what had happened.

Pushing the pilots along, Parfet informed, "Well whatever you did, crystals are growing at a phenomenal rate now! This entire section of the ship will be covered in minutes, along with the engine compartments!"

Like the claws of a diamond monster, crystals tore through the walls around the group. "Holy shit!" Jura shouted.

Everyone hurried down the hall as more of the growths ripped through the plates on the floors and ceilings. The roar of twisting metal echoed down the hall and followed the group as they fled down the halls of the engineering compartment.

Upon spotting the emergency stairway, Dita pleaded, "Run faster!" Lights started going out behind the women as they ran for the emergency stairway and headed up and away from engineering and the engine block. Jura turned before the door closed to see the crystals had already covered every portion of the hallway they had just fled from.

With the flick of her hair, she muttered, "You try to reach out to people and look what happens…" Jura then followed the rest of the women up the stairwell.


	5. Domestic Dispute

Crispy casually walked down the crimson tinted corridor, his eyes counting how many E-Humans were around. While he returned the salutes of warriors passing him, pasting a smile onto his face to keep his appearance friendly, the Ghost Wolf had counted nearly one hundred soldiers between the armory where he was headed and the hangar where he identified the super Vanguard. After a few more turns down the sleek antechambers of _Sui Generis_, Crispy added a dozen more E-Humans to his count.

_There you are…_

Two guards were stationed outside of the armory, both with the standard rifle of the E-Human military. "Corporal Dresden!" the two saluted the E-Human way before one asked, "Is there something we can do for you?"

Crispy clicked his tongue before replying, "No, just checking the wares, you know?"

"Sorry, sir, but we can't allow you back there without proper clearance."

"Oh yeah. I forgot…"

_Armor's weak at the abdomen and joints. Neck is always exposed of course…_

"… I'm just so used the special treatment from back home."

Crispy's left fist caught the guard on the left in the throat, the Corporal nicking his fingers on the rim of the armor around his neck. Before the reptile could even gag, his right fist came around and caught the guard in the jaw. Evolved or not, most animals still have a lot of nerves in their jaws. The blow caused the warrior to stumble to the side, enough time for Crispy to knock aside the rifle being leveled at him. With his free hand, he hit the guard straight in the snout and followed up with an uppercut with the other hand. Grabbing the knife strapped to his chest, Crispy sliced the blade through the E-Human's throat, turning to kick the other in the face before he got to his feet. Before the warrior could recover a second time, Crispy jammed the knife into his eye, putting a stop to his movements, permanently.

"Evolved my ass," he scoffed as he obtained one of the guards' rifles.

Upon walking into the armory, Crispy counted seven soldiers. With none of them immediately armed, the Ghost Wolf fired on each of them with quick bursts. Apparently their armor was only meant to protect against firearms because the plasma melted through the alloys and nearly burned all the way through some of them. With his guard still up, Crispy anticipated the next two that came running, both of them ready for whatever was going on. Crispy moved behind the weapon racks and kept low as the two fired at where they thought he was. Circling around them by keeping behind the racks, Crispy flanked the two warriors and caught them from behind. A single plasma shot to the backs of each of them was enough to bring them down.

_Twenty seconds before the first group comes looking._

With no time to waste, Crispy hopped over the bodies and benches to where the explosives were. The plasmite charges were kept in a locked portion in the back, according to Scyle. A trio of pulses was enough to melt the electronic lock on the door, like the ex-Lieutenant had also told. Before the heated metal could cool, the Ghost Wolf wedged the Plasma Repeater through the gap in the door and pried the door apart. The smell of burnt flesh and molten metal was already filling the air, fumes that Crispy assumed were hazardous in the long run. Dropping the somewhat damaged gun to the floor, he pushed the door open the rest of the way by hand and opened up the first drawer he saw on the right. Blocks of high explosive plasmite filled the drawer, bringing a smile to Crispy's face.

"The beauty of technology." He grabbed them all and began sticking them to the walls around the room. Satisfied with his swift work, the soldier headed back outside and grabbed another PR-20 off one of the racks to take aim at the entryway.

The first two E-Humans that entered the room were hit multiple times by Crispy's fire. He dropped into a prone position when the others fired blindly around the corner. Looking back at the explosives storage room, the Corporal wished he had closed the door to the room. He didn't know if the plasmite would detonate if it were hit. Not taking any chances, Crispy took shots at the arms of the warriors, content when he heard the agonized screams of the soldiers whose arms he had melted. To be sure everyone outside of the room was neutralized, he grabbed a grenade off of a shelf and depressed the button on it, holding it down for three seconds to activate it. As soon as the grenade gave off three rapid beeps that signaled its activation, Crispy held onto the grenade for two seconds longer before throwing it into the hall. He kept his head down as the detonation filled the hall with white hot plasma.

Crispy fitted himself with E-Human ammo pouches and filled them with grenades and a few extra plasma batteries. The PR-20's lasted a long time without reloading, but Crispy was sure he would need all the ammo he could get for the next few hours. The last thing he grabbed was a comm headset, pushing the small device into his ear and pressing the button on it to switch the frequency.

"Can you guys hear me?" he asked, knowing his squad and Scyle were listening.

"We read you, Corporal, are we good to go?" Salem responded. E-Human commanders could be heard shouting orders as more soldiers came to get the Ghost Wolf.

Relishing the fight to come, Crispy replied, "Oh yeah, we're good to go."

* * *

Pulses of plasma splashed against the stunned E-Human loyalists as Scyle and a group of insurrectionists stormed down the hall. Taking a knee at an intersection, he fired at the soldiers coming at them from the rear. Plasma hit against the wall inches from his face, causing him to wince at the heat. Taking cover around the corner, Scyle placed a plasmite charge on the wall, punching in commands for a timed explosion instead of a remote detonation.

_Ten seconds should be enough._

Firing back the advancing soldiers, Scyle back pedaled to catch up with his brethren down the hall. Counting to ten in his head, the E-Human stopped suppressing the enemy and began sprinting at eight. The plasmite detonation engulfed the warriors giving chase behind, heat breathing down the hallway in one burst and lights dimming from the shockwave.

"Power for this section of the ship comes from here, Scyle!" one of the rebels informed as the E-Human caught up with his team. The rebel pointed to a doorway down the hall as they moved up. While Scyle and one other got ready to breach the room, the others took up positions to watch for reinforcements. The rebel on the other end of the doorway activated a plasmite grenade and held it for three seconds before lobbing it into the room as the doors slid open. As soon as the explosion sounded, Scyle whisked around the corner and fired on the first loyalist he saw, the next was hit by the rebel at his side. Scyle waved for the man to head right as he headed left.

Moving across the room at opposite ends in a pincer move, Scyle and his teammate made sure the power room was clear by shooting anyone who was still moving. "Damn, I was hoping to get them and the power with one grenade," the rebel remarked.

"Remember, you owe me fifty creds," Scyle replied with a smirk before firing into the consoles before him. The superheated plasma incinerated the controls and melted the internal wiring of the machines. After a few moments of plasma fire, the lights went out, plunging everyone in darkness, if only for a moment. After five seconds, the red emergency lights turned on. "This is more like it," Scyle growled, anticipating the chance to face his opponents in the dark once more.

"Let's get moving, sir!" the rebel told before heading outside.

Scyle emerged into the hall to see a lot more dead E-Humans than he remembered. "We got this hallway locked down, sir. Keep going, we got your backs," one of the rebels reported, firing back at the warriors down the hall.

"Hold this hall with them, I'll get to the hangar alone," Scyle ordered the other men. He hoped up into the exposed air vent above and disappeared into the bowels of the Earth Fleet's titan.

* * *

More detonations rocked the ship as explosions tore through the innards of the Supreme Commander's prized flagship. He roared in anger and grabbed the nearest Honor Guard by the collar and pulled him close. "Kill them! Kill them all!" Shoving the elite warrior away, Zeeron turned his attention back to the battle outside.

_So many traitors in my midst? How?_

Insurrectionist cruisers fired on loyal battleships as the surprise attack raged. The rebels took control of hundreds of frigates and cruisers, destroying just as many in the chaos of the battle. Every one of Zeeron's ships was under siege from within, making coordinating attacks a nightmare. With a bold attack like this, Zeeron knew right away who was to blame.

"Sir, we've got more sections of the ship losing power. Someone's taking out key power stations around the ship!" reported one of the security observers.

"Start pulling men from the lower priority sectors!"

"Another battleship is down, the innies just brought down another battleship!"

"Battle Group 2-1 circle around and assist _Glorious Retribution_! Battle Group 2-2, move with the _Sui Generis_ to ensure no one fires upon us!" he barked over the comm. Another frigate disintegrated apart from plasma fire in front of the E-Human flagship as loyal vessels tore apart the traitors. "Someone get a hold of Commander Prowl!" the Supreme Commander ordered as he moved over to the holo-table. After a few seconds, the holographic image of the Commander appeared before Zeeron. "Prowl, where the hell are you?" Zeeron snarled.

"On board the _Hallowed Soul_, my liege. Formations are breaking in 2nd Fleet; I've been trying to hold them together!"

"Return to this ship! I have a feeling the Ghost Wolves will try to free the boy and escape!"

"Yes, my liege!" the Commander saluted.

"Prowl, don't you lose track of that Vanguard! Hibiki cannot get back alive, understand?" the Supreme Commander snarled. Even in the hologram, Zeeron could see the smile on Prowl's face.

"Oh he won't."

* * *

Hibiki wasn't exactly sure when the shooting and explosions started, but ever since they did, he'd been trying to find a way to break out of his cell. Unlike before, when he was held in a small room with no way to see outside, Hibiki was taken into the biggest room he'd ever been in. From what he counted, there were ten levels with hundreds of catwalks spanning both ends of the long room. There must have been thousands of massive holding cells like the one he was currently in, all sealed off with a translucent blue energy field that he knew there was no way out of. Based off the size of the cell he was in, he guessed that each on in the room could hold hundreds of people. The possible answer as to why a brig this large would be needed troubled him.

_Using the remains to rebuild…_

A violent and loud explosion shook the ship even more, knocking Hibiki off balance. The lights began to flicker and, to his surprise, the energy barrier. Now the Vanguard pilot wasn't sure as to what would happen if he was in the doorway when the energy flicked on, but he knew this was his only way out. Counting the time between flickers, he figured he had about two seconds or less to get through. Planting his feet to get ready for a dive, he counted until the third flicker to jump.

_Now!_

He sprung forward just as the barrier disappeared. Residual static energy was what he passed through, a feeling that felt like he was diving into hot water. Emerging from the other side, Hibiki rolled onto his side as he hit the floor. Taking no time to look back or look around, Hibiki ran down the long room to the massive double-set doors he had been dragged from. Right away, Hibiki knew something was off because there was no one in the brig keeping watch on him. The fight going on outside the room must have big to have the attention of the E-Humans that were in the room before, something the teen knew he had to take advantage of before someone came looking for him. Making matters worse, though, was the sudden announcement that played overhead.

"This is your Supreme Commander, all personnel are to neutralize all hostiles. If Hibiki Tokai has escaped from his cell, he is to be shot on sight! That boy is to be kept from leaving this ship at all costs!" The Supreme Commander was definitely pissed and wanted someone's head, the Vanguard pilot being one of the most wanted.

A part of Hibiki wanted to go back into the cell and stay alive. After all the things he learned the other day, there was no way the people back on Taraak or Mejere would hold off against the Earth Fleet. But as the battle continued outside and as he listened to the Supreme Commander's enraged voice, he knew not all the people of his homeworld were evil. Those who still had hearts were fighting back and in the chaos of the battle, he could escape and get back home. Hibiki's thoughts came to one conclusion, that the man with the scarf was not the enemy he thought he was.

"Alright, Partner, I'll get you out of here in no time," the young man said, anxious to get to his Vanguard to help the rebels.

Taking two steps into the hallway, Hibiki knew the day was going to be a long day. Scorch marks and plasma burns lined the wall and a guard was slumped against the far wall with much of his upper torso burnt off, causing the boy to freeze up and rethink leaving his cell.

_Get used to it! You're going to be seeing a lot more soon!_

Hibiki knew he was going to have to get used to the sights and smells of charred flesh because the war was far from over. Realizing he needed a weapon if he wanted to get off the _Sui Generis_, the pilot ran over to the body to pick up his gun, keeping his eyes on the weapon and away from the horrible sight.

_Where are his buddies?_

Searching for others on either ends of the hall, Hibiki saw that no one was around other than he and the dead man in front of him. The E-Humans must have pursued the people responsible for killing their comrade, luckily for Hibiki. Trying to rely on his memory, most of which was blurred by the pain he'd been through in the past few days, Hibiki navigated the hallways slowly, keeping himself low and in doorways for cover. While the section of the ship where the brig was still seemed to have power, the area Hibiki currently traversed was lit only by dim red lights. Seeing that all the automatic doors were open, Hibiki guessed that the main power source was off in this sector. All the corridors had signs of combat and the air was filled with the smell of smoldering metal and burning corpses. The dull red glow on the scorched portions of the walls meant that the teen had just missed whatever happened in this hall.

"Oh shit," he muttered as he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Hibiki dropped to the floor and pushed up against the wall to play dead as the E-Humans neared. The footsteps stopped down the hall and a light shined upon the bodies around Hibiki. The beam searched the hall almost as if it were the user's gaze.

The quick search lasted until one declared, "All clear, let's keep it moving," his voice with the same gravely tone as every other E-Human. Just as fast as they had appeared, the E-Human troops were gone. Laying in the darkness, Hibiki thought of his next moves. He had no idea where the hangar was or if his ship was even being kept in one, but laying amongst dead bodies wasn't what Hibiki wanted to do for the rest of the day. He dashed down the hall where the soldiers came from and headed in the opposite direction they went.

Another explosion rocked the ship and threw him against the wall. "Son of a bitch!" he cursed, moving even quicker than before.

Reaching a T-junction, Hibiki barely poked his head around the corner before a flash of heat passed his face. Throwing himself back, he could already smell his own singed hair. Pulses of plasma flared back and forth as a firefight commenced. As shouts echoed down the hall, the pilot could have sworn he heard someone say his name. "Crap," he said, stepping back from the T-junction with his weapon at the ready. He might not have fired a gun before nor did he know what the hell kind of gun he was using, but he saw it had a trigger and a barrel, so he figured it shot something.

As he waited for someone to turn the corner, the words, "Hibiki, wait where you are, we'll come to you!" echoed back to the young pilot.

_I guess they did see me._

From the sound of the voice, Hibiki knew the person calling out to him was E-Human. Hoping it was one of the rebels, Hibiki called out, "Which side are you on?"

Expecting either a "good guy" or "bad guy" sort of response, the E-Human instead replied, "Your left!" Hibiki poked the gun around the hall to the right and fired blindly at what he hoped was the enemy. Expecting more of a kick, he was surprised that the gun didn't recoil as hard as he expected, relaxing his grip on the gun. When Hibiki pulled his arm back, plasma crashed against the wall he leaned against, the shots coming from the "bad" side of the hall. The white streaks intensified from the good end as Hibiki saw a group of E-Humans coming towards him. He raised his weapon slightly, hoping that he didn't have to shoot the supposed rescuers.

"Take it easy kid, we're getting you out of here," one of the reptiles said as they pulled Hibiki aside. "The Ghost Wolves have your Vanguard in hangar A-3. We have to get you down there ASAP," the warrior told as the rest of his team continued down the hall.

"Who are you guys? And who are the Ghost Wolves?" Hibiki asked while the E-Human craned his neck around the corners to see if anyone was coming for them.

"Don't worry about it for now. Just stay behind me and try not to shoot blindly like that again. It kind of makes you look like an idiot." The E-Human then rounded the corner and sprinted down the hall. Hibiki was astonished by the beast's speed and wondered if it were even possible to keep up with him. In the middle of a warzone with no clue where he was, Hibiki had no choice but the run after the rebel and hope he didn't collapse from exhaustion.

* * *

The muzzle flashes of the PR-20's lit up the hall as dozens of E-Humans fired back at Murdock and Marcus. With the emergency lights shot out, the Ghost Wolves were fighting Zeeron's troops in the dark. Hiding in emptied rooms, the two soldiers hopped from doorway to doorway amidst the strobes. The E-Humans had no clue as to where the two were and were unaware that they were getting closer and closer. "Move up! Two-by-two!" one of the warriors ordered. Marcus moved away from the doorway and hid in the darkness of the room.

The soldiers moved passed the room, two-by-two as expected. Sergeant Grey let the Plasma Repeater hang off the 3-point-strap holding the rifle to his chest and drew two knives sheathed to his belt. Just as the last group lined up by the door, Marcus sprung from the darkness and sunk the two blades into the necks of the warriors and pulled them into the room. From the glimpse of the door across from him, Marcus could tell that Murdock did the same as he. With four soldiers down, the two Ghost Wolves turned into the hall and fired on the oblivious E-Humans. As six more warriors fell, reinforcements drew near from behind. "Murdock, go, I got your back," Marcus told as he kneeled and took aim.

Three shots caught the first warrior in the chest, the third shot burning completely through the man and hitting the wall behind him. He lit up the whole intersection as he backed up and followed Murdock. "Come and get it you fucking iguanas!" Marcus mocked before he rounded the corner. "Crispy, hit it!" he shouted into his comm. On cue, _Sui Generis_ thundered with the sound of dozens of plasmite detonations. The metal under his feet grumbled as portions of the ship all around him disintegrated under the intense heat of plasma.

_Burn you bastards, burn!_

The screech of bending steel resonated through the halls as the mighty flagship of the Earth Fleet was torn up from the inside. Explosions, gunfire and death, three things the Ghost Wolves had been missing out on for a century and a half, the things they would bring to their homeworld again if that's what it took to bring down Zeeron and his legion. Marcus made a turn at the intersection to find Murdock and Crispy waiting, both beaming. "I think we might be making a mess," Murdock said.

"Then let's keep the fires burning," Marcus grinned.

Keeping in a single-file line, the three crept through the battle scarred corridors of _Sui Generis_, putting down more and more warriors on their way to hangar A-3. The squad had been firing their weapons continuously for so long that the barrels of their PR-20s were glowing red, the dull orange light shining on the walls beside them. Tossing the overcharged weapons aside, Marcus and his team retrieved "newer" guns from deceased E-Humans.

"You know, I'm starting to like the future, Sarge," commented Crispy, kicking over a dead warrior.

"I was hoping to get to Mejere and Taraak without a problem myself. But, it's good to know a hundred and fifty years in a fridge hasn't taken off my edge," Murdock responded, strapping a new rifle to his chest and slinging another over his shoulder. Marcus had to agree with his SAW gunner. He had to admit that he doubted his ability to perform as a soldier because of the ridiculous length of time he and the squad spent in cryo. Now that he was back in action, Marcus had complete faith in his team and himself.

"Keep it down, we got company," he warned, taking aim at the soldiers coming towards them. The possibility of dying frightened Sergeant Grey more than anything, but he knew that if the time came, he would be ready. Only two days since defrost and the Ghost Wolves were back to their normal routines. Morphing into the dark, the soldiers of conflicts past hunted their new prey, stalking through the flagship as the Wolves had years ago.

* * *

"The god damn thing is a bitch to control! What do you want me to do?" OJ yelled back at Salem. More plasma crashed against the windshield as E-Humans fired on the currently occupied Chaos dropship.

"Just open the hatch and keep this thing moving!" Captain Citadel ordered, grabbing his rifle from the seat beside the Specialist.

"I'm a sniper, Captain! Why the fuck do I have to do this?"

Salem braced himself against the inner wall of the cabin as the dropship swooped back and forth within the massive hangar. Placing his feet in front of him to keep from falling out, he squeezed off a few shots at the E-Humans taking cover on a platform overhead. Zeeron's men had tried hitting the dropship with rockets, even though it was still inside their own ship. The Marines had successfully sabotaged and destroyed the other dropships in the hangar, meaning the UD-22 OJ currently maneuvered awkwardly around the hangar was the only immediate way off the ship. Salem and the small handful of insurrectionists below the hovering craft were now the only ones standing between the Earth forces, the somewhat intact dropship and Hibiki's detained Vanguard. The conditions couldn't have been better for the Captain of the Ghost Wolves.

As the dropship rotated around, a white flash flared by Salem's face, causing the Captain to throw himself backwards into the Chaos. The E-Humans above suppressed the exposed rear hatch while Salem scrambled off his back and slumped against the doorway behind OJ. "Raise the ship, they're looking right at us!" he called out, firing back up at the silhouettes taking cover behind steel crates.

"There is no up! We're indoors!" OJ complained, shifting the ship aside abruptly to dodge another rocket. Salem flinched as the rocket slammed into the catwalk and brought E-Humans crashing down to the floor below.

Even with bits of heated metal showering him, Salem chuckled, "Never mind, they're taking themselves out!"

"Salem, you read?" Scyle's voice broadcasted for the first time since the beginning of the attack. "Scyle, where the fuck have you been? We're running out of time here!"

"I'm headed your way and so is the boy!" Even through the headset, gunshots could be heard in the background. Based on how it sounded, Scyle was facing heavy resistance.

"You know where my men are?"

"They're en route; I'll be seeing you in five."

Shouting back to the cockpit, Salem said, "OJ, five minutes and then you're done!"

"About time!"

Communications were starting to fall among the rebels as Zeeron's troops attempted to jam their network. Someone had figured out the rebels were tapping into portions of the fleet's comm lines and soon began shutting down the hacked systems. With the rebel "fleet" getting obliterated outside, it was only a matter of time until it would be impossible to get off of _Sui Generis_.

Salem fired at a group of E-Humans just entering the hangar, his shots hitting a pair of them before they knew where the enemy was. Keeping the rifle tight against his shoulder, he fired again, hitting a squad leader in the face, then in his chest. Salem searched for more warriors among the chaos that were giving his allies a hard time. Spotting a rack of plasma batteries, Salem fired off a quartet of pulses, causing a white hot detonation that engulfed a small squad and caused the platform above to buckle under the heat.

_Aww crap!_

An overhanging beam broke loose from its supports and tumbled down towards the UD-22. With only seconds to spare, Salem called out, "Hard left!" While he was quick enough to give an order, Salem neglected to grab a hold of the hand rail on the wall. When OJ banked the ship to port, Salem tumbled out the back of the dropship and slammed against a stack of crates. Even with the wind knocked out of him, Salem rolled off the top of the crates as the Supreme Commander's warriors focused their plasma on him.

Pressed up to the side of damaged equipment, the Ghost Wolf Captain was pinned down. Hoping he didn't have to wait longer for his team, he grabbed one of his grenades and primed it. With the flick of his wrist, Salem sent the explosive over to the other end of the crates he hid behind. Counting to himself, he waited until the grenade was about to go off to start running. His eyes to the fallen walkway ahead, Salem ignored the bright flash and enormous heat to his back, dropping into a slide as he neared cover.

Merely seconds after taking a moment to breathe, a trio of dark red humanoid machines soared into the hangar from the open battle outside. "OJ, Vanguards!" the Captain warned. Two of the machines took aim with their wrist cannons and let loose a barrage on the rebels on the opposite end of the hangar, their 90mm shells resounding with ear bursting cracks and ground shaking explosions. Salem dashed across to a burning gravlift truck and took aim at a plasma battery close to the trio. The ensuing flash obscured two from Salem's view while the third was thrown back into one of the wrecked Chaos dropships. The Captain was moving again before the three had an idea who took a shot at them. "Scyle, we have three big problems in the hangar, hurry up!"

"Captain, we read you, we…" Marcus' unmistakable voice suddenly cutoff, most likely when the Sergeant took notice of the Vanguards. Missiles streaked overhead and impacted the area around the recovering machines. With a glance over his shoulder, Salem saw that OJ had figured out how to fire the UD-22's weapons. The ship's missiles released with powerful thumps and the air filled with smoke. Blasts tore through the hangar under the Specialist's barrage. Peeking over the destroyed gravlift, Salem spotted his team with more rebel reinforcements.

"Crispy, get an RPG and make sure those Vanguards stay down! Murdock, take a squad with you to hold the hallway and make sure the kid gets here in one piece!" he ordered.

The Captain ducked his head back down in time to just miss the shell fired at him. Knowing the Vanguard now had him in its sights, Salem sprinted from the truck as more high powered bullets ripped apart the vehicle and sent shrapnel everywhere.

_Damn it Hibiki, where the hell are you?_

* * *

However long he'd been running through the innards of _Sui Generis_, Hibiki knew that he was getting closer to either escape or death. Corpses were piling up and more of the flagship's power systems had gone down. The E-Humans he followed moved amazingly fast through the carnage, stopping only to suppress enemies in their way.

Reaching another intersection, the group halted their advance. One peeked around the corner, pulling his head back before it was hit with plasma. "Luna!" the E-Human called out.

"What's…" The E-Human shushed Hibiki as he listened for a moment.

"Earth!" a voice echoed back.

"Come on," the rebel waved Hibiki over as the group headed down the hall to another squad of rebels. Among the E-Humans was the largest of the regular humans.

"It's about time you got here, Tokai," the man said, looking as if he'd been enjoying the past few hours.

Returning the smile, Hibiki replied, "You know for a moment, I really thought you were on Zeeron's side."

"We technically are. We're just protecting our home our way," the man told. He then motioned for everyone to follow him back to a set of automated doors. "Alright Tokai, here's the deal. Your Vanguard is on the far side of this hangar to the left. Follow me and don't do anything stupid. Three of Zeeron's Vanguards are in there and they're gonna be gunning for you, so keep your head down." Hearing the soldier's quick briefing, Hibiki suddenly felt sick. He though back to when he saw a Melanic girl by the name of Ceron get killed in front of him. He couldn't experience something like that again. The man must have sensed Hibiki's worries because he slapped the teen's shoulder and said, "You'll be fine. Just get in your ship and help us tear these guys a new one."

_That doesn't sound too bad._

Hibiki smirked at the soldier and said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, "Then let's get moving."

Ordering a few of the rebels to stay behind to hold the hallway barricade, the soldier opened the doors to a huge firefight. Hibiki couldn't see much of the hangar because of all the debris and wreckage. The room looked as if it were collapsing under the intensity of the battle, a notion backed by a series of explosions somewhere on the other end of all the mess. To the far right side, a dropship hovered around, strafing the area with plasma. The heat and smoke in the air made it hard to breathe, making Hibiki wonder just how long someone could last in a fight like this.

"Captain, the kid's in the hangar, make sure you get the attention of those Vanguards!" the soldier yelled into his comm. Staring directly at the person ahead of him, Hibiki kept his legs moving as he followed him through the ruins. A loud metallic boom filled the air followed by a huge ball of blue flames.

"I think a Wolf took out a Vanguard!" one of the E-Humans behind Hibiki remarked.

The soldier replied, "Yeah, we tend to do things like that."

The E-Human nudged Hibiki and told him, "You're a way better pilot than those assholes, so kick the fuck out of 'em when you get armored up!"

"I plan to."

The human soldier stopped and turned to Hibiki, pointing to something behind him. "There she is, Tokai."

_She?_

Hibiki glanced behind the man to see what he was talking about. The gold and white machine sitting in a recharge station on the far wall had never looked so beautiful in his life. The Paksis upgraded Vanguard was undamaged and a mere one hundred meters across the tarmac, which made the pilot wonder if the Supreme Commander wanted to make copies of his machine. If that were the case, Hibiki knew he had to get to his partner as soon as humanly possible. Unfortunately, there didn't look to be anything to take cover behind. If Hibiki wanted to be reunited with his Vanguard, he would have to sprint out in the open.

Hibiki was about to ask what the plan was when the man suddenly grabbed him by the shirt and pushed for him to start running. The squad and he followed behind Hibiki as plasma began whizzing by. "Shit, shit, shit!" he cursed as he pumped his legs as fast as he could. He could hear the men behind him firing back at the loyal E-Humans. There was probably forty meters to go when suddenly, a mass of dark red slammed before Hibiki. The boy threw himself sideways in time to dodge the titanium alloy blade that came crashing down. The single white "eye" of the E-Human Vanguard flashed once as if the machine were winking at the boy. The E-Human Vanguards were larger than their Taraakian counterparts, just as Hibiki's was. Their limbs and overall structures looked to be remade to look more like the new humans of Earth.

The Vanguard raised its foot to stomp Hibiki with. The boy scampered backwards to dodge the blow, even though he knew it was futile at this range. Expecting the foot to come down any second, the machine abruptly recoiled backwards when a rocket caught it between the armor on its shoulder. The 1.5 ton limb crashed down to the floor and chunks of metal blasted outwards from the explosion. Hibiki curled into a ball as the flaming bits of armor showered him.

_Get moving! Go!_

Before the other came for him, Hibiki got off the floor and vaulted over the burning arm, making a full sprint the last thirty meters. Hopping up the stairs two at a time, Hibiki jumped into the cockpit of his partner, spinning himself around in mid air to land perfectly in his seat. Practically punching the switch, Hibiki sealed the cockpit and initiated the start up sequence. "Home free!" he yelled in triumph. He didn't know how the soldiers planned on getting across the galaxy or how long until the people of Earth would be ready to attack again, but Hibiki was ecstatic. He would return to Dita and kiss her like he never had before and everything would be alright. When the viewscreen winked on, however, all his hope diminished.

The Vanguard with a missing arm had its sword leveled for a stab. With the systems still powering up, Hibiki had no chance of getting out of the way in time. The blade was about a few feet from Hibiki's Vanguard when a blur of black filled his view. The sound of crashing metal and broken steel filled the internal audio ports. As soon as the Vanguard was ready, Hibiki pushed off the ground and looked around the corner of the recharge station to see what happened. The dropship he had seen earlier had plowed right into the Vanguard, stopping its movements completely. Flicking through the comm channels, Hibiki switched to local comms to speak with the rebels. "Kid, don't worry about the dropship for now, get that last Vanguard! Go!" the voice of the man with the scarf told. Drawing his energy sword immediately, Hibiki faced the last Vanguard, one that had two swords in hand.

_Bring it, you bastard!_

Hibiki charged forward as the other man did. Swinging first, the other Vanguards blades swooped inwards horizontally. Completely slicing one blade in half with his energy sword and catching the other with his free hand, Hibiki had the enemy Vanguard defeated before the fight started. Hibiki cut through the machine's waist and then swung upwards to sever the arm still holding the intact sword. One final roundhouse kick to the E-Human's face finished off the inferior mech, making it topple backwards into the debris behind it.

"Damn kid!" someone commented as laughs and cheers filled the comm. It felt good to strike a blow at the people of Earth again. Everything they did and everything they planned to do would be met with punishment.

"Nice work, Hibiki! Now check on OJ and the dropship and see if it's still useable," said the man with the scarf.

Looking to the two wrecks behind him, Hibiki saw a human soldier climbing out the back hatch of the destroyed craft. The man gave a thumb up and waved the boy over. "This thing isn't flying anywhere any time soon," the man said, his voice filtering through the Vanguard's external audio capture device.

"What about the ABH drive? That's all we'll need," an E-Human asked.

"Scyle, how nice of you to join us," said OJ as a group of E-Humans and the large soldier from before met in behind the ship.

"Zeeron's sent his Honor Guard, we haven't much time." One of the E-Humans, one that Hibiki supposed was Scyle, entered the destroyed craft. "The ABH drive is fine, all we need is a power source and we can jump out of the system."

"What's an ABH drive?" Hibiki asked.

"Artificial Black Hole, it's what all the ships in the Earth Fleet use for long range travel. It's how they've been getting from system to system in short amounts of time."

"How far can they jump?"

"Depends on what's supplying the power. The plasma batteries for the Chaos dropships are only good for getting from one end of a planet to another, essentially."

Bolts of plasma pinged off of the Vanguard's armor as a squad of E-Humans fired on the remaining rebels from across the room. Hibiki ripped off a piece of the catwalk beside him and hurled it at the loyalists, putting an end to hostilities for the moment.

"Sorry, I think we destroyed all the batteries here," said a man with glasses.

"Damn," Scyle cursed, stepping into view as he thought. "Salvaging one from one of the others would take too long…"

"How about my partner here?" Hibiki asked. The others looked to Scyle for his input as he hopped out of the dropship.

"Your Vanguard is powered by a portion of the Paksis Pragma, is it not?"

"Yeah, I'm sure that's worth something," Hibiki told as he leapt out of his machine.

"Power of that magnitude will get you as far as any Earth cruiser could. You'll be able to get back to your people sooner than we planned."

Not leaving any time for thought, the man with the scarf said, "Hook 'em up. We don't have time to talk. Reinforcements are coming to finish us off, so let's go!"

Scyle ordered Hibiki to lay the Vanguard atop the Chaos as he and the other E-Humans began attaching wires and cables to it. While some were to hold it in place, others connected the Vanguard's core to the ABH drive within the damaged ship. Hibiki had meant to ask how the rebels were going to travel since the hull of the dropship was too damaged for travel in a vacuum, but he assumed they had worked something out already. Sitting inside his Vanguard, Hibiki waited as the E-Humans completed the link. "When we get back to Mejere and Taraak, what are we gonna tell them?" he asked.

"You're gonna tell them about the Earth Fleet, about _Sui Generis_ and about Operation: Retribution. We still have work to do here," told the man with the scarf as he climbed onto the Vanguard to look into the machine's "eyes".

"Wait, you're not coming? I thought this was the whole point!" Hibiki protested.

"We're not done with the Supreme Commander, yet. You need to warn your people about the coming storm, Hibiki, for all our sake."

Hibiki heard the sound of an explosion in the distance but could only see the ceiling of the hangar and the soldier. The soldiers had planned on sending him away the whole time. While Hibiki was sent to safety, they would sacrifice themselves to save people they probably have never met. "You can't stay here! Let me help you guys! I have to put an end to this!" Hibiki yelled as he tried to break free from the dropship. The Vanguard was disabled as he soon realized and was unable to do anything about the man's plans.

With plasma pulsing over his head, the man told, "Your friends need you more than ever, Hibiki. We went through a lot of shit to get you out of here, make it count!"

The man was about to leave when Hibiki called out to him, "Wait! Who are you? Where did you come from?"

The man came back into the external camera's view and pulled the scarf from his face. The person looking down at Hibiki may have been seven or eight years older than he was, but he was still young, a lot younger than the Vanguard pilot had expected. "Just tell your leaders the Ghost Wolves sent you. I'm sure they'll understand!" The nameless leader of the Ghost Wolves disappeared again, despite Hibiki's cries.

"No, I can stop them here! Let me go!"

A loud whirring began to fill the air at the ABH drive inside the dropship came to life. "God damn it, get me out of here! I can't run from a fight!" Hibiki struggled to open the hatch on his ship, but the ABH drive was already active.

"The people of Earth have lost their way, Hibiki Tokai. Set them right again," told Scyle over the comm.

"I will! I promise you I will!" Hibiki gritted his teeth. Hibiki suddenly felt tingly as the whirring grew to its loudest. The sounds of combat were drowned out and suddenly, he could hear nothing. Before he knew it, everything faded to black as he tumbled through the darkness of a black hole.


	6. Crossing Paths

It went without saying that the core had expanded its borders a lot since the crew was gone. When Meia and the others returned to the engineering department of the _Nirvana_, they found it completely gone. Instead, the elevator doors opened up to a single room where the now larger Paksis sat. The spherical room took up all the space where hallways and maintenance passages once were and moved all the consoles and terminals against the walls, the computers being out in the open instead of compacted into one small room with a big window. Four catwalks spanned the expanse the Paksis hovered over, all of them forming four intersections around the glowing entity like a tic-tac-toe board. There were four pillars of crystal that rested equidistant from the center of the room, all of them reflecting lights from the glow of the Paksis Pragma. The rest of the large crystalline structures were all pointed to the center of the room as if they were reaching for the living energy source.

_The Paksis is getting good at making flashy appearances._

The returning engineers and pilots walked along the walkway with mouths agape as they took in their new surroundings. "I have to say, I definitely like what the Paksis has done with the place," commented Jura. The blonde took a peek over the railing to see the bottom of the sphere. "You think you have time to fix up my room while you're at it?" she asked the core. Meia rolled her eyes and continued walking.

Barely hiding the sarcasm, Pyoro responded, "Yeah, because that's just as important as the ship itself." Jura's only response was a smack to the back of the head.

"It looks like the operating system's been revamped," observed the Chief Engineer.

_An understatement._

As Parfet and her teams went back to work, Meia and the other lead pilots continued to wander around the room. Even though the engineering department looked brand new, Meia couldn't help but feel something was off. Maybe it was her personal experiences with engines telling her that everything was positioned wrong. Of course, who was she to question the Paksis. It hadn't exactly steered them wrong before. "Well, the place does look better…" Glancing at the engineers, the Squadron Leader added, "… and _they_ seem to like their new workplace. But, what exactly did this do for us?"

"I don't know, but…" Jura tapped Meia's arm to catch her attention. "I bet whatever's behind those doors will answer our questions." The double set doors in question were on the opposite side of the room from the elevator. They couldn't have seen it until they made it a quarter of the way around the outer walkway. Curious as to what could be inside, Meia and the other pilots crossed the gap and walked into the mysterious room.

Without any better words to describe what she felt, Meia bluntly asked, "What the hell is that?"

The pilot of the _White Wing_ stood in a cavernous room which used to be engine blocks A through C. Much like the core room of the Paksis, this new chamber was covered with crystals. The back section of the room where the engines would have been located was occupied from ceiling to floor with one black machine. Beams and clear pipes giving off a dull purple glow stretched up to the ceiling and to the walls while flying buttresses stemmed from the machine to the entrance-side wall. Branching off from the center of the thrumming instrument towards the top was what looked to be eight claws that nearly met at their tips to form a circle. In the "grasp" of these claws was what appeared to be a lesser Paksis. The purplish orb hovered in the center of the "palm" of the claws while several rings rotated around it at high speeds. The combined sounds of the massive machine and the spinning of the halos made this room louder than the core where the Paksis was and just like the core, the only light source was the shining sphere.

"Is this the engine?" Dita inquired as she touched its smooth surface.

"The noise would mean a yes," Jura stated.

"That thing, on the other hand, is something else entirely," Meia motioned to the claws hanging over them. "I don't know how this particular engine works, but I'm pretty sure that this thing would be inside of that if it were just another piece of the engine."

"Then what else could it be?"

"I know how we can find out," Meia glanced at Jura, then at Pyoro.

"Hey, I don't know what it is!" the robot suddenly told.

"You can link into the system and get an idea," suggested Meia.

Inspecting the surface of the supposed engine, Dita revealed, "I don't think there's anything to plug into here. There isn't even a single rivet."

"How hell are we gonna fix this if it breaks?" Jura queried as she got a look for herself.

Looking back to the core, a thought came to Meia. "Maybe the Paksis plans to keep watch over this."

In that moment, an awareness struck Meia like a bolt of lightning. With a feeling she had felt before, Meia stood frozen as images streamed into her mind. Before she knew it, she was floating in space. A ship floated by itself in the vacuum accompanied by chunks of metal and debris.

_Do those belong to that ship? No, it's damaged, but mostly intact._

The small ship tumbled endlessly with the mass of debris as Meia drifted closer to it. The nose of the vessel was crumpled inwards from some sort of impact, but she could tell it was no ship she had ever seen. As the top of the alien ship rotated towards her, she saw a gold and white object sitting atop. The humanoid mech was without a doubt Hibiki's and, to Meia's relief, was in one piece. She was so close to the two vehicles now that she could reach out and touch them, but all she could do was observe. The Vanguard was held down against the strange ship with cables and wires. Looking back at the destroyed cockpit of the ship underneath, she hoped that Hibiki was in the Vanguard.

Meia's vision only lasted a fraction of a second, but felt like she had been drifting through the vacuum of space for far longer. The expressions on the faces of the two pilots with her meant they had seen what she'd seen. "This is the second time that's happened," Jura reminded, rubbing her forehead.

"Could any of you tell where that was?" Dita asked, her mind most likely racing with thoughts.

"I didn't see anything that could…" Before Meia could finish, the orb above she and her friends suddenly became bright. The rings spun faster and faster until they were practically nonexistent in the radiance of the globe. The claws straightened out and began spinning around the orb as the whine of high powered machinery filled the air. Unsure of the safety of her close proximity, Meia grabbed Dita and Jura by their arms and pulled them out of the room.

"What's happening now?" Parfet called out, most likely directing the question to Meia and the others.

"The Paksis, look!" Pyoro pointed out. The core was glowing brighter as sparks of ions shot outward at the crystal pillars. Thunder filled the air and the ground shook. The noised reached its apex before suddenly everything went silent.

Jura barely had time to utter, "What the fuck," before a loud boom resounded through the ship. Everything was warped towards the engine room and then expanded back outward into normality in a split second. The Paksis returned to its normal state and the roar of energy and lightning died down.

Meia didn't realize she was the only one not clinging to the rails and walls during the event. Her eyes stayed on the crystals overhead, unsure if they would fall down on her or not. She just looked back at Jura and said, "Yeah, 'what the fuck' is about right."

"Meia!" the Captain's voice broadcasted from Pyoro. The robot's screen turned from his face to a video feed of Captain Magno. "Mind explaining what just happened? Mejere was in front of me a second ago, now I find myself staring at stars."

_Stars?_

Meia hit the wall in anger, upset that she hadn't thought about it sooner. "Meia?"

"We'll explain more in person, Captain, but basically, I think we just traveled through a black hole."

* * *

_Yep, I'm still in the Vanguard._

Hibiki knew where he was before he even opened his eyes. The comfy seat of his partner was so imprinted in his memory that he could tell if anyone had sat in it recently. When his eyes were adjusted, he switched on the external cameras to get a look outside.

_Great, stars._

With the exception of the hunks of armor following outside and the waving wires from one of his mech's restraints, there was nothing for Hibiki to use to get a bearing on where he was. "Okay…" He switched on the Vanguard's main systems and hoped they weren't disabled. "Shit!" The Vanguard was still immobile despite Hibiki's commands. In a fit of rage he slammed his fist into the walls and elbowed his seat. He cursed at nobody as he shook his controls, willing them to work.

_How did they disable the damn ship?_

Relaxing into his seat, he looked around the interior of his Vanguard. "Come on…"

_They better have left me something to eat! I'm not dying of starvation without one more sandwich._

Reaching under his seat, Hibiki's fingers brushed against paper. Pulling the sheet out, he found a plain white piece of paper. The words "Fire your jets" was written on the sheet. "You gotta be shitting me!" Hibiki quickly grabbed a hold of his control stalk and fired the Vanguard's boosters. As the note said, he ripped from the wires holding him down and was disconnected with whatever was disabling him. Flexing the appendages and limbs of his partner, he found that all functions were working perfectly. Seeing that everything was in place, Hibiki now had to find out which direction was home. Looking back at the paper, front and back, he found no information. Balling it up, he cursed, "Damn!" before tossing the wad of paper aside. With no better ideas, Hibiki switched off his ship and sat back in his chair. He then switched on the homing beacon Gascogne fixed into his ship. Since Hibiki had gone missing to the crew of the _Nirvana_ twice, Gascogne felt the added measure was necessary. He only hoped that it pays off this time.

* * *

"Even after a year, it finds ways to impress a woman as old as me," Captain Magno remarked. She, the Sub-Commanders and Gascogne observed what Pyoro recorded from the new core and engine room. Meia and the other two pilots were with the ship's ranking officers to see what else they could learn.

"So it's done stuff like this before?" asked Rebecca as she looked on.

"Just the one time when the ships were fused," Pyoro told.

"Have you figured out where we are?" Dita asked.

"Kind of," replied Sub-Commander Buzam as she dimmed the lights and turned on the holographic projection of the starmap.

_This is bad._

The entire Milky Way Galaxy was in view with every known planet, star, nebula and solar system mapped out. The names of nebulas disappeared so that everyone could see the miniature representation of the _Nirvana_. "As you can see, we didn't go as far as we've gone before, but we're still light-years away from our system." The map zoomed on the location of the _Nirvana_, revealing it was between nebulas.

"That's at least a four month trip," Gascogne calculated.

"That, or the Paksis could just jump us right back again," muttered Rebecca.

Shaking her head, Meia stepped forward and said, "There's a reason why the Paksis brought us here. This wasn't a random jump like before; it knew where it was going."

"Scan the area, see why it brought us here," Dita told.

"There's nothing on the starmap, Dita…"

With a burst of impatience and anger, Dita slammed her palms onto the table and snapped back at Buzam, "Just do it!" A stunned silence filled the room as the girl kept her gaze on the Sub-Commander. From across the room, Meia could see her glistening eyes on the verge of tears.

"BC, tell Celtic to run a scan on the immediate area," Magno finally said.

Buzam gave a slight nod, walking over to Dita to put a hand on the girl's shoulder. She then reminded her, "We're going to find him, Dita. He hasn't been able to outrun us before." Dita nodded back, pulling her gaze from her shaking hands. The Sub-Commander then left for the bridge.

After the doors shut Meia asked, "Captain, do you need us for anything else?"

Magno shut off the starmap and said, "No, that'll be all." Meia nodded to Rebecca once before following her friends out. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was waiting for them. Between the vision of Hibiki and the sudden jump across the galaxy, Meia knew that Hibiki was near.

"I'm taking the Dread out, come with me," Meia veered away from the crew quarters and headed for the elevator. Without a dispute, Dita and Jura followed their Squadron Leader to their personal hangar.

As soon as the doors to the lift closed, Jura asked, "So, what did you see?" Meia felt Jura's eyes on the back of her head, the woman waiting for an answer.

"The Vanguard was floating in the middle of nowhere. Kind of like we are now," Meia responded.

"That's exactly what I saw. How about you, Dita? Same thing?" The crimson haired girl was quiet.

Then, while staring at the floor, she replied, "I didn't see the ship, I was in it."

"In it? You saw the inside of that ship?" Jura spoke with surprise. "What was in it?"

"Nothing. There was nothing except a locked door." Dita turned to the others and asked, "Was it in bad shape?" Meia knew the locked door she was talking about could have been for the cockpit. As Meia remembered, the cockpit was not in good shape at all. Only someone in a space suit could possibly survive in there.

_Was her vision telling her Hibiki's fate?_

"Is it as bad as I think it is?" Dita moved closer, her eyes giving away her fear.

"His Vanguard was strapped to the ship. He's probably in there," Jura assured. Being acquainted with the blonde for years Meia knew Jura didn't believe that at all, but, Dita was on the edge of sanity. The two knew she might hurt herself if Hibiki was really gone.

Once the doors opened, she said, "Come on; let's just get off the _Nirvana_ for a while."

If there was one reason why Meia decided to be a pilot, it was because flying made her feel free. Being onboard starships was a vast change from living in the open air of Mejere. Dashing through the stars in her Dread was as close to running in an open field as she could get.

"So, Meia, where to?" asked Jura, her Dread flying close enough to Meia's starboard for the pilots to see one another.

"Dead ahead, let's keep it simple until they call us back." Jura shot ahead of her and Dita, saying, "Try to keep up."

"You too, Dita," Meia told, looking at her subordinate through the video feed. "You don't want Hibiki to find you like this do you?"

The girl's laugh seemed forced, but at least it was better than seeing her sad. "Yeah, you're right." She accelerated after Jura, leaving Meia to play catch-up. Pushing the accelerator down, the _White Wing_ sprung forward to close the gap between it and the _Blue Kachina_.

Meia only had to go so far before she caught sight of both Jura and Dita coming to an abrupt halt. "Meia!" Jura broadcasted her Dread's external feed to show what she saw. The image only showed a few specks that might have otherwise been thought of as dust. It wasn't until the image enhanced that she saw what Jura saw.

_Oh my god!_

A battered ship tumbled amongst a field of wreckage and wiring, a sight that made the pilot tighten her grip on her controls. "Captain, can you read me?" Meia called as the speck in the distance grew larger.

"Meia, we read you, what've you got?" responded Rebecca.

"We found a ship! Tell Bart to get his ass moving!" Jura answered.

"Where's the Vanguard? Do you see it" Meia asked as she and her team raced to catch the vessel. The gap between the women and the ship closed in seconds as the agile Dreads accelerated through the vacuum. The beaten starship looked exactly as the vision had shown, down to the scars along the hull.

"I don't see the Vanguard! Where is it?" Jura couldn't contain her concern. Nearly a few hundred meters away, the ship began to warp.

"What's going on? Dita can you see anything?" Meia asked as she rotated her Dread around the wreck. The hull bulged outwards from the inside as if something was pounding its way out. Keeping her crosshairs on the vessel, Meia watched as the ship was torn apart from the inside.

"Oh, son of a bitch!" an all too familiar voice said. A bright green energy sword stabbed upwards through the ship and cut the ship open with ease.

There were no words to express the joy in Meia's heart when she saw the golden mech climb out of the ship. A pair of robotic green eyes looked upon the Dreads.

"I was wondering when you guys were going to show up," Hibiki's face appeared on the screen in front of Meia.

She didn't think she'd ever be so happy to see that smug smirk in her life. "We figured your stupid ass knew how to get home on your own."

"Hibiki where the fuck did you go?" Jura shouted. She might have sounded irate, but her face displayed a look of happiness.

"Dita…" Hibiki began. Dita's Dread, however, turned around and headed back to the _Nirvana_ at full speed, before the boy could finish.

"Dita, where are you going?" Jura asked as the Vanguard towed the small craft towards them.

* * *

Upon bringing the wrecked dropship into the hangar, Hibiki ran past everyone even as they welcomed him home. Even though it was imperative that he told everyone about what was coming, fulfilling his promise to the Ghost Wolf, Hibiki had one prior engagement he had to meet. There was only one girl he wanted to see at the moment, everyone else could wait. Zigzagging through the pristine halls of the _Nirvana_, Hibiki burst into the environment room as fast as he could.

Now walking, Hibiki headed down the stone path to the railing where a red haired girl awaited. "Guess who," he said as he put his hands over the girl's eyes. In one swift motion, Dita grabbed Hibiki by the shirt and threw him against the railing. Expecting a sensuous kiss, Hibiki was surprised by the fist that crashed into the side of his face.

"Why? Why did you take so long?" Dita yelled at him. With no chance to answer, Dita was already pressing her lips against his, tears streaming down her face. Her kiss seemed to last for an eternity, one that Hibiki would have gladly endured. Holding her body close, Hibiki enjoyed the moment alone with his love, his mind free of the notions of death and destruction heading full speed toward his home.

* * *

Meia couldn't believe that everything she and the rest of the Alliance Fleet feared was not only true, but much worse. Hibiki kept laying down everything he knew and saw, moving frantically back and forth in the room as he told about the evolved Earth humans and their technology. With every word, Meia could tell the hopes of everyone around her were diminishing.

"I didn't get a look at their starships, but the guys who helped me kept telling me to tell you guys about _Sui Generis_. They said things like, 'it was the largest ship ever built' and 'it can level the surface of planets by itself'…"

"What about Operation: Retribution? They didn't tell you anything?" asked Barnette, sitting atop the briefing room's table with her arms crossed.

"No, the guy just told me, to tell you guys about it, but I don't remember much, they tortured me and then the attack came out of nowhere…"

Duelo stopped Hibiki with a raised hand. "You need to slow down, Hibiki. You've definitely been under a lot of stress."

"Yeah, you need to take it easy. I'm getting a headache just listening," remarked Bart. Meia sighed as she took the moment to take in what the Vanguard pilot had said. It sounded so farfetched, but seemed to fit. The people of Earth have done crazier things from her experience, so why wouldn't they be super evolved reptiles with bigger ships and guns all made by the Red Paksis.

"I'm fine, but we need to tell the rest of the fleet about this!" Hibiki swatted Duelo away.

"We can't do that," told Magno.

Facing the Captain, he demanded, "Why not!"

"We're not so close to home as you may think," Gascogne answered. "We're about six months away from Mejere and Taraak."

"Six months? Then how the hell did you get here? I wasn't gone that long!" Hibiki was increasingly getting angry, an impatience that Meia could somewhat understand.

"The Paksis made some changes to the engineering department. Long story short, we got what the Earth Fleet's been using to get around," Buzam explained. "An ABH drive you mean? How'd you get one?"

"What the heck's an ABH drive?" asked Parfet.

"Artificial Black Hole, that's what the E-Human guy told me."

"Sounds about right," Rebecca stated with a scoff.

"Listen, young man, unless you've got some hard evidence, the fleet's gonna think you've gone insane. Sure they'll believe that the people of Earth are coming, but they won't listen beyond that if you keep ranting the way you are," Magno warned.

"I'm not making up anything, just look at that ship I brought in! There's an ABH drive in there and plenty of stuff to back me up!"

_A locked door…_

"Dita, what about your vision?" Meia suddenly remembered.

"What, the door?" the girl thought.

"Yes, do you think it was trying to tell us something?"

With a look of confusion, Paiway asked, "What vision are you guys talking about?"

"Hibiki, was there anything inside the cockpit of the Chaos dropship?" Meia pressed.

"I don't know, I didn't get to take a look inside that part."

"Then let's take a look now."

After a quick elevator ride, everyone was inside of the _Nirvana_'s hangar. Parfet and Gascogne worked on cutting the door off the sealed cockpit as the rest of the crew watched. Parfet's plasma cutter melted the metal around what appeared to be the door's lock. Pulling the high energy device away, Gascogne punched the square that had just been cut, knocking the metal block back into the room beyond. "Take a step back," she instructed as she forced the door apart. Even Meia needed reminding once in a while about how tough Gascogne was. Being in the military, her training and experience surpassed much of the crew.

Waiting like a birthday present for a child, a gray crate sat melted and strapped to the ground. "Do you wanna cut it or pry open?" asked the Reg Chief expectedly.

"I don't want to cramp your style," Parfet responded, backing away. The brawny woman forced a crowbar into the lid of the crate and popped it off in a matter of seconds.

"It's open!"

"What's in it?" Hibiki jumped into the ship to get a look.

Peering into the crate, Gascogne told, "Looks like a data disc and…" After pulling out the clear square object, Gascogne reached into the crate and pulled out a small thin oval shaped piece of metal. The Squadron Leader could tell she didn't know what it was. She herself had no clue either.

"What is it?" Barnette asked as Meia and Dita went to investigate. Seeing Hibiki's face, Meia knew he wasn't too happy to see the object.

"Those guys…" he sadly said as he took the bit of metal into his hand. Sitting in one of the seats within the cockpit he continued. "The ones like us, they were wearing chains with these attached to them. They sacrificed themselves to save me." Hibiki gripped the metal pendant tightly when he spoke those words. "They didn't even know who we were…"

"These men…" Magno was suddenly behind Meia and Dita. "Did they ever tell you who they were or where they came from?" Opening his fingers, Hibiki held out the piece of steel.

"The man with the scarf just told me to say the Ghost Wolves sent me and that our leaders would understand." The look on the Captain's face gave away that she had heard of them before. "Did you say, Ghost Wolves?"

"Do you know who they are?" inquired Dita, a question Meia intended on asking.

The Captain stepped out of the dropship with a smile on her face as she examined the bit of metal. "Yes, I'm familiar with them." Sitting upon one of the crates, she twirled the pendant in her fingers as she spoke. "I was probably five or six when I first met one of them. My parents and the grownups were always talking about them, saying how they were so heroic. In that time, the world was at war. There were many people back on Earth who hated the idea of abandoning Earth, the planet that had been home for humans for millennia, just to live on another world. To them, Earth could be fixed and could one day look as beautiful as it once was." Looking to Hibiki, the Captain said, "In a way, I agree with them. Earth is the home of our ancestors and forever will be. I didn't want to see it suffer, and neither did my parents or anybody for that matter. But, sometimes to be human, is to be a hypocrite. The anti-colonization people bombed buildings and ships and waged war, causing more harm to mother Earth. Their hearts were in the right place, but their minds were not. The Ghost Wolves were established to put an end to these hostilities, an elite group of young volunteers to bring peace in one swoop."

Magno chuckled at the ludicrous thought. Even Meia had to agree that such an idea was absurd. Then again, considering the circumstances surrounding Hibiki's capture, she and the rest of the Alliance Fleet were foolish enough to make the same mistake.

"Well, they did make things safer for the colonists as the fleet prepared to leave. They had cracked down on hundreds of bases and hideouts, stopping just as many terror plans in the process. The best thing about them was they didn't care about the political views or the implications of their actions. They did what they did to save lives. They put significantly more people in jail than they killed. Were they out to exterminate all the anti-colonists, they would have just bombed those bases. The Ghost Wolf leader was the one who convinced the URA not to do so. I guess the anti-colonization people didn't believe that too much, because one day they decided to board a colonization ship and crash it into the Ghost Wolves' base of operations." Captain Magno shook her head as she thought about the incident. "I remember how my parents reacted to the news. It was as if someone close to them had died. Apparently, all but a dozen Ghost Wolves survived the attack. Five of them did so because they were away on parade for their outstanding efforts. Shortly afterward, the United Republic's leaders ordered the execution of every incarcerated terrorist, throwing away all the work the Ghost Wolves fought and died for." With a sigh, the Captain continued, "Shortly before our ship left for Mejere and Taraak, the UR added one more ship to the fleet: a small military vessel that belonged to the Ghost Wolves. The leader of the Ghost Wolves met with the colonists before departure, making sure he knew the names of everyone he worked with. He and his men chatted with the colonists like they were longtime friends. The woman we now know as Grand Ma had said they were coming along to make sure we were safe in our new home."

Getting off of the crate, the Captain read the words engraved on the piece of metal in her hand. "Citadel, Salem M: 894768663: URA. I don't remember the names of the men that came with us, but I remember their faces. It's funny; I never understood why their leader always wore a black scarf around his neck."

"The Ghost Wolves, the ones that came with you, where are they now?" Hibiki abruptly asked. Something about the Captain's last words suddenly had the boy on edge.

Seeming grim, Magno replied, "They never made it to our new home." The elderly woman shook her head again. "To think, if the anti-colonization groups knew what the leaders of Earth were planning, they might have put a stop to the harvest long before any of you were born." Placing the tag in Hibiki's hand, she added, "Or maybe their hatred of us kept their lips sealed. Who knows?" She took a few more steps to the exit before finishing her thought. "Either way, none of that helps us against the Earth Fleet. If any Ghost Wolves helped you escape, they're probably dead now."

The more the Squadron Leader learned about the history of her people, the more questions would arise. Would it have really been that easy to put an end to the harvest?

"Ms. Gasco, we should probably get that decrypted," Parfet suggested.

"Yep, you're probably right. Let's just hope Hibiki's friends didn't fry it when they fused that box to the floor." The Reg Chief agreed as she hopped out the back of the ship. "And it's not Gasco, it's Gascogne," the woman muttered behind the female pilot. Meia looked back to the ship at Hibiki and Dita, both of which seemed down. She knew they needed to be alone for a while, but there were pressing issues at hand.

"Come on you two, back to the briefing room," Meia told, following the others out of the hangar.

* * *

"Prep all fighters for assault and make sure all guns are loaded for bear! Lieutenant, prep all interceptors for close range support!" Prowl barked as his men scurried about. Nearly eight hours had passed since the Commander and his small battle group jumped into ABH space. Three cruisers comparable to the harvester flagships accompanied the stealth frigate as Prowl chased the singularity trail left behind by Hibiki's ABH jump. He would have preferred to stay behind to finish off the insurrectionists and the Ghost Wolves, but the Supreme Commander was fixed on getting Hibiki. The way the Commander saw it: if he couldn't finish off the traitors at home, he would just bring back the kid they risked everything to save.

"Sir, it's just one kid, do we really need this much firepower?" asked one of Prowl's subordinates as the Commander shouted out orders. The young man had much to learn if he was to become a Spec Op Commander like Prowl one day.

With a slight smile, the Commander told, "We do if we plan to capture him."

"But," the Lieutenant interjected. "Didn't the Supreme Commander…"

"The Supreme Commander knows his devoted Special Operations go above and beyond expectations, Lieutenant. His orders leave us with two options: obey and kill the boy without a single conflict, or bring the child back to be executed before our grand army." With a wry grin, Prowl asked, "Which one do you think will earn us all promotions, _Lieutenant Commander_?" The people in the room let out cries of approval.

The Lieutenant returned Prowl's smile and responded, "I going to have to go with that second option, _Captain_." Now that everyone was on the same page, Prowl needed to be sure they were ready.

The battle with Ashes of Humanity crippled the main fleet and saw the destruction of a number of the Supreme Commander's prized battleships. Needless to say, the leader of Earth was feeling a bit more vengeful than usual, a feeling that was mutual between he and Commander Prowl. Understanding the gravity of the situation filled him with vigor. Knowing how important his role was in the coming conflict was what drove the Spec Op.

_Honor and Duty._

"Sir, we should be exiting into normal space in ten minutes," informed a bridge hand.

"Good," the Commander replied as he sat back in his seat. "Prepare for immediate engagement."


	7. Confrontation

Amarone walked onto the bridge with a sour look on her face. "Did you find out anything?" asked Operator Celtic Midori.

"No, no one's telling me anything. In fact, I don't think anyone knows anything," the young woman said, sitting beside the aquamarine haired girl in a huff. They all knew that the ranking officers had all gathered in the briefing room behind the bridge for the third time in one day. Whatever it was they were talking about, it must have been serious. Normally Celtic and the girls would be all over the news, but this time around, it seemed luck wasn't on their side.

"So, did you check engineering?" asked Misty, taking a seat beside the two.

"No, why?"

"Something happened down there and you didn't bother to look?"

"Did you?" Amarone raised a brow.

Misty scoffed and wiped bangs from her dark blue hair out of her eyes, replying, "Why should I? I have better things to do!"

"Yeah right, you hang around here just like we do," Belvedere called out from across the room.

"And I enjoy doing that thank you very much," Misty replied with her arms folded.

"What about you, Ezra? Has Rebecca told you anything?" Celtic asked the mother sitting with a baby in her arms.

Smiling and shaking her head, Ezra replied, "Nope, she's been busy all day."

"Of course she is. Between meeting planet side with the Alliance leadership, to getting warped across the galaxy and then suddenly finding Hibiki, I would assume she wouldn't have much time to discuss things," Misty explained.

"True. So, who would be able to help us?" Celtic wondered.

The women of the bridge crew seldom had anything to do. While they all used to do more when they lived on Mejere, their lives had become kind of a bore since they joined Magno and her pirates years ago. Sure, they got whisked away on a journey to fight for the survival of the human race, but they didn't take part in any of the action. Watching a battle from the bridge of the _Nirvana_ truly was a sight to behold because of the massive view, but after a few hundred skirmishes, it lost its wonder. Sitting around gossiping ended up being their pastime as a result of their chronic boredom.

"So did you guys see the new Vanguard pilots running sims? What I would give to be alone with one of them in a sim chamber," Misty said with a lustful giggle.

"What would you do with them?" Belvedere asked in confusion. Celtic knew exactly what Misty was getting at, but she herself and the rest of the Mejere born women didn't exactly know what it was like to be with a man, which is probably why the _Nirvana_ was chosen for Grand Ma and Grand Pa's little experiment.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you guys don't know anything about that kind of stuff. Too bad."

"What's it like to be with a man?" asked Amarone. Celtic and the other girls pushed closer to listen, anticipating juicy details.

"Well, I haven't actually been with one, but I've kissed one," Misty corrected.

"Oh please, then you're on the same boat as us!" Belvedere scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, I know what I would do if I was and you don't so, ha!"

In the middle of their conversation, Celtic heard a beeping sound coming from Amarone's station. "Uh, Ama? You've got something," she pointed to her friend's station.

"What the…" The girl walked over to her station and scanned the screens to see what was wrong. "Uhh, Paksis is sensing four signatures." After a moment, Amarone corrected herself. "Four really big signatures!"

"Where?" Misty asked, searching the stars ahead of her for anything out of place. Answering her question were the four massive ships that warped into view. A burst of energy struck the _Nirvana_ almost instantly.

"Damn!" Celtic was startled by the arrival of the four large alien vessels just as everyone else was. "Hail the Captain, hurry!" she shouted at Belvedere.

"Bart, wake up!" Ezra called out to the man lying against the helm.

The Taraakian officer sat up and looked around asking, "What? What's going on?" It annoyed Celtic how oblivious the young man was sometimes. Even if he was the one and only possible pilot of the ship and was amazing at it, he still had no excuse for being an idiot.

"Get in the helm you retard!" Celtic yelled at him, pointing to the unidentified starships.

Bart had only gotten to his feet when one of the vessels fired. A bolt of plasma struck the center of the _Nirvana_, tearing through its armor like a bullet through tissue. The lights flickered and the ship groaned in a way they had never heard before.

"What the hell is going on?" Amarone asked as Bart got the ship's shields up.

"Paksis energy readings are going down. I think the Paksis was hit!" Ezra informed as a few more slugs burned against the _Nirvana_'s shields.

Placing the communications collar around her neck, the horseshoe-shaped console she normally worked at hovered down from its standby position and hummed to life as the systems booted up. Belvedere was shouting into her comm as alarms went off within the corridors of the _Nirvana_. Even with an imminent attack from the gigantic ships, Celtic felt a bit of glee and excitement creeping through her body. Her boring day was finally over.

* * *

The sudden alarm meant that the E-Humans had finally tracked down Hibiki and the _Nirvana_.He knew they must have had some way of keeping track of their ships, he had just hoped the rebels or the Ghost Wolves had disabled whatever device that did so. Even so, he didn't expect to be found this fast. With only a few smidgens of data read and absolutely no time to familiarize themselves with the new Earth Fleet's massive arsenal or the race of humans that were on course for their homeworlds, the _Nirvana_'s ranking officers ran out of the room to prepare for combat. Hibiki and the Vandread pilots were the first to get to their hangar and began to board their ships.

"We're still a bit in the dark here, so take it easy!" Jura warned Hibiki as he boarded his Vanguard.

In agreement, Meia added, "She's right, we're playing defense on this one, so don't try anything fancy this time around."

Hibiki nodded to them and began to close his ship's cockpit, saying, "Don't worry about me. I promised those guys back on _Sui Generis_ I would make my escape count."

Exiting the white hangar into the black of space, Hibiki was the first to see the four E-Human ships. Three cruisers accompanied a smaller frigate that he recognized very well. It was the Spec Ops oriented frigate, _Hallowed Soul_. "No surprise the people of Earth would have big ships," Gascogne commented as her refit vessl joined the formation.

"We've taken on big before. These things should be no problem," Jura replied, flicking her hair to the side in the image Hibiki saw of her in his comm.

"Yeah, but we had help with the flagships when we fought more than one," Barnette reminded. Just as the "veteran" and new pilots lined up into formation behind the Vandread pilots, a visual transmission appeared on everyone's dashboard.

"There you are Hibiki, I see you found your friends," said Commander Prowl with a smile. The E-Human didn't seem particularly angry that Hibiki had escaped his clutches, but then again, he was probably hiding that discontent very well.

"What the hell is that?" Jura asked with disgust.

"What you aren't, False Human." Hearing the reptilian's voice made Hibiki's skin crawl. He harbored nothing but hate for the E-Human warrior that was beaming at him.

"You shouldn't have followed me, Prowl. Now I'm gonna get you back for kidnapping me, you bastard," Hibiki told, drawing an energy sword.

"I had planned on brining you back to the Supreme Commander, but I'm sure he'll be just as satisfied with the deaths of you and your friends. It'll make our future endeavors a little simpler."

Forming up in front of the small E-Human battle group were hundreds of Vanguards and strange starfighters Hibiki and the others hadn't had time to familiarize themselves with. "If I'm not mistaken, I disabled your engine and damaged your Paksis, did I not? I suppose that means you won't be running away from another fight like a coward again," Prowl inferred. Hibiki gripped his controls tightly. Thinking back to the escape from _Sui Generis_, Hibiki remembered the faces of the people who got him out. The man with the black scarf was very clear about what Hibiki was to do when he got back to his friends.

Hibiki, as he always said, was a man who never broke his word. "I'm not running anywhere. You're all gonna pay for Melanis and for the Ghost Wolves."

With a laugh, Commander Prowl responded, "I guess we'll find out about that in a moment, won't we?" The Spec Op frigate, _Hallowed Soul_, slowly vanished before Hibiki's eyes.

_Damn! That thing has invisibility abilities!_

E-Human starfighters shot forward as their cruisers unleashed a barrage on the crippled _Nirvana_. "Hibiki!" Dita forced her Dread into his Vanguard, causing the two to combine in a brilliant flash of light. Vandread-Dita flexed its arms as the shoulder mounted cannons began to glow. Just before the cannons completely charged up, a slug from an invisible foe slammed into the Vandread, knocking it off course as it fired at nothing. Feeling the Vandread's pain was something Hibiki didn't like too much. He and Dita winced from the high powered attack.

"We won't be having any of that, Hibiki. We know your tricks just as well as you do," Commander Prowl mocked as his frigate appeared and vanished again in seconds.

_That piece of shit!_

"Where is he?" Dita looked around to see where the ship went.

"We have to keep moving. Meia!" Hibiki called out while he was swatting the attacking Vanguards out of the way.

_White Wing_ zigzagged through the assaulting Vanguards as it chased down the more agile fighters. "What is it, Hibiki?" the girl asked, dodging missiles from oncoming starships.

"We need to get Prowl's attention. Combine with me," Hibiki told. The white Dread fired a few pulses through a Vanguard before altering course.

"Give me two seconds," she told.

Gascogne's refit ship unleashed a salvo of missiles as she powered through the E-Human Vanguards. "Hibiki, we have to take out those cruisers first," she told as her armaments reloaded.

"She's right; the shields aren't gonna last long until Parfet and Pyoro get the Paksis up and running!" Bart confirmed.

"Shit, we didn't bring Pyoro? We need him!" Hibiki cursed. He planned on using the Super Vandread to finish this battle quick, but the Paksis needed to be at maximum strength to do so, which was probably why Pyoro wasn't with them at the moment. For now, they'd have to do without the super weapon.

Jura and Squadron Leader Valore formed up behind Dita as Hibiki and Meia combined into Vandread-Meia. The bird-like ship thrummed with an energy that felt similar to mass quantities of adrenaline pumping through his veins, something that fit the extremely fast and agile fighter. "We'll bait their guns, just concentrate on taking out those cruisers," Hibiki ordered as he and Meia shot forward towards the enemy battlegroup.

* * *

Barnette and Valore flew side-by-side as they chased down enemy fighters. The unknown V-shaped starfighters were just as fast and agile as the Dreads and based on how they danced throughout the chaotic battle zone, they were controlled by experienced pilots. But, Barnette had been piloting her Dread for a long time with more than enough experience to help her keep up with the E-Humans. That and her hatred for anything from Earth was what kept her motivated for fighting. Lining up another shot, she fired off a handful of plasma bolts, turning the fighters ahead of her into balls of burning plasma. Spiraling to avoid the wreckage, Barnette lined up behind Valore and followed the Squadron Leader towards a team of Vanguards.

Suddenly, a beam of red plasma streamed past the two, causing Barnette to force the ship under the blast. The blinding heat caused the Dread's shields to flare, not taking any noticeable toll on them besides that. The plasma coated slug smashed against the _Nirvana_'s shields, another attack meant to bring down the ex-pirate ship's only protective barrier.

"Dreads 23, 4 and 6, form up on me!" Valore ordered. "Barnette, we have to push towards those cruisers. We can't fight out in their firing line like this."

"Wait 'til Hibiki and Meia have their attention, then we'll push," Barnette told, narrowly dodging another beam. A Vanguard suddenly slammed into the front of the Security Chief's Dread. Driven off course, Barnette yanked the joystick back up to correct the spin. The E-Human grabbed a hold of the fighter wherever it could and stabbed a sword through the bow. Whether the thing did so to stabilize itself or to cause damage, the girl knew she had to get the thing off of her ship. "Get off, you fucker!" she yelled as she angled her Dread to hit a destroyed fighter. Pushing down the accelerator, the wreck slammed into the back of the Vanguard, knocking the machine off Barnette's Dread, but leaving behind a sword that was now stuck in her ship. She could have sworn she saw one of the thing's arms get torn off from the impact.

_Way too close._

Even with the visual obstruction, she formed up behind Valore. Tracers firing up from around the cruisers caught their attention amidst the skirmish.

_White Wing_ was strafing the starship, revealing that the enemy vessels had shields as well. "Valore, we can't attack while those shields are up," Barnette said, breaking away from her wingwoman as a dozen fighters came at them.

If the _Nirvana_'s power levels weren't so low, the shields would have probably been down by now, allowing for the Dreads and male piloted Vanguards to attack. But, with all the power focused on defensive shielding, Barnette and her fellow pilots would only be able to defend and hope the power was restored before the ship was destroyed. At least E-Humans couldn't be remade nearly infinitely like cubes could.

* * *

Bart's attention kept going back to the energy readings hovering beside him as the battle outside unfolded.

_Come on!_

The Dreads and Vanguards were engaging the enemy right between the _Nirvana_ and the E-Human battle group, a dangerous position given that the cruisers were keen on destroying this ship. He heard everyone's shouting over the comm as he watched his friends dog fighting with red Vanguards and starfighters. Flinching as another bolt of plasma stuck the ship, he raised Parfet on the comm. "How long until we get the Paksis back up?" he asked, seeing the dull glow of the injured core behind the Chief Engineer.

"We're working as fast as we can, but we can't 'fix' the Paksis on our own," Parfet explained. The ship was hit again, throwing the girl off balance. "It's regenerating, so it'll take a while."

"Can't you power down non-essential systems? I have just enough juice to fire the main weapon," the helmsman requested.

"I'll look into it, give me a second!" Parfet disconnected from the comm. Another round of attacks hit the _Nirvana_. The shield's power was decreasing dramatically with every strike, making Bart jumpy. He hated himself for not getting ready in time to bring up the shields when the enemy first attacked. The position he found himself in was caused by his negligence and his friends might end up paying the price.

_No! This ship can't get destroyed on my watch! If I can just fire once…_

A rapid beeping noise brought Bart's attention back to the energy readings. The levels increased by a third, bringing a smile to the man's face. "Thanks Parfet," he said before hundreds of crosshairs locked onto the cruisers in front of him. "My turn, fellas!" he shouted as hundreds of blue beams of plasma fired from the _Nirvana_'s guns. The beams singed through the enemy fighters and Vanguards in the center and continued on to hit the three cruisers ahead. Their blue shields flared outwards, mimicking the shapes of the ships instead of acting as a bubble like the _Nirvana_'s shields did.

"Bart, you're a life saver," Jura commented as a few cheers filled the comm. The battle hadn't gone on for too long and already the Dread teams were exhausted.

"I've got enough for one more, Captain, where do you want it?" Bart asked, hoping his upbeat attitude would keep everyone's moral up.

"Let the weapon charge, Bart. Don't waste all of it before we need it," the Captain ordered.

Hundreds more enemy reinforcements came from the hangars of the three cruisers just as the two ships on the sides began moving to either side of the _Nirvana_. Identifying the pincer move, Bart fired the directed plasma cannons once again. The incoming squadrons were incinerated and their numbers were cut down by a third before they engaged the _Nirvana_'s Dread and Vanguard teams. The cruisers were saved by their shields again and continued on course to around the crippled ship.

What surprised Bart, however, was that as the beams of energy stretched towards one of the cruisers, they slammed into the invisible frigate that had been harassing Hibiki and Meia for the entirety of the battle. "Hey, thanks for that!" Hibiki praised.

Bart didn't want anyone to know that was an accident, so he shrugged his shoulders and replied, "No problem, the guy thought he was slick." Unfortunately for Bart, because the energy coursing through the ship was low again, he would have nothing to do until the Paksis Pragma was back up. He watched helplessly again as his friends fought off more enemy reinforcements.

* * *

Beams of light flared past Vandread-Meia as it swooped by the E-Human cruisers. Dozens of weapon platforms flickered against the dark of the behemoth's hull. No matter how many of them fired, though, Meia's Vandread was fast enough to dodge all of their attacks. The only thing getting close so far was the precise cannon fire from the invisible starship that stalked them. How a ship so big could easily evade the battle and hunt after the fastest starfighter in the galaxy was a mystery, but the answer wasn't going to help the two now. Rolling the craft out of the way of more defensive cannons, Meia and Hibiki pulled away from the massive ships.

"We're not getting anywhere like this, Prowl's on our ass every step of the way," Hibiki said, hitting his fist against the dashboard.

_White Wing_ was then struck on the port wing by a blast of plasma from the E-Human Commander's main cannon. The Vandread spiraled towards one of the cruisers uncontrollably for a moment, regaining stability seconds before it was about to crash into the invisible energy shielding.

"Left, Hibiki!" Meia shouted as she steered the ship to port. The bottom of the Vandread scraped the energy shielding as a few more shots cracked behind them.

"Damn, he's shooting at his own team!" Hibiki realized.

"That helps us, doesn't it?" Meia responded, gritting her teeth as the Vandread pulled sharply away from the cruiser.

The close call made Meia look back at her squadrons to see how they've been faring in the conflict. Blooms of light faded in and out of view as ships exploded apart in the dog fighting. Unable to bear the sight of her friends in trouble, Meia forced the ship around. "Where are we going?" Hibiki asked, still looking around for any signs of _Hallowed Soul_.

"We're going back to help out the Dreads. Get ready to combine with Jura."

The two of them didn't get very far before a proximity alarm blared from the computer. "What the hell is wrong now?" Hibiki hit the screen. There must have been a mistake because nothing was in front of Meia and Hibiki. Surely Commander Prowl couldn't have gotten in front of them this fast.

"Young man, there's something else out there, can you see anything?" Captain Magno asked.

"No, ma'am, we don't see…"

A burst of energy slammed into Vandread-Meia as a mass of metal morphed into view directly above the ship. Fighting to regain control, Meia brought her eyes up to see what just happened. Her heart sunk when she figured out it was. "Oh shit!" she blurted out as _White Wing_ accelerated away from the fourth E-Human cruiser. While it wasn't a whole fleet, another E-Human warship meant this fight was over. Bringing up the comm, Meia informed, "Captain, we have another cruiser here." Upon getting a good look at the cruiser, Meia noticed it was damaged already. In fact, blue flames of plasma could be seen burning along segments of its hull and portions of the interior workings were exposed to the vacuum. The rebels Hibiki had spoken of most certainly did a lot of damage to the warship. Damaged or not, though, the ex-pirates had to escape. Amidst Meia's thoughts about how they would go about doing so, the cruisers opened fire once again.

Struck with horror, she looked to the _Nirvana_, expecting the ship to be obliterated. Instead, nothing was hitting it. Turning to the cruisers, she discovered they were exchanging fire with the damaged newcomer. The damaged cruiser brought down one of the ship's shields and sent a slug straight through the weakened vessel's midsection. Two blasts ripped through the once thought reinforcement ship before it fired off another shot.

With two ships without shields now, Meia knew she and Hibiki had an opening. "Hibiki, let's get them now!" she told, her gloved hands gripping the Vandread's controls tightly.

"Two for one?" Hibiki recommended.

"Let's do it."

Hitting the accelerator, _White Wing_ lurched forward at the two weakened starships. The second ship was behind the one in front of them, meaning Meia and Hibiki had a chance to hit both. Activating the bow piercing shield, the two leaned into the advance, bracing as the black armor of the E-Human cruiser neared. As soon as the Vandread hit the ship, all Meia could see outside was white. The heat and energy from the piercing ram melted apart the metal around them and allowed for _White Wing_ to pass through the center of the already damaged vessel with ease. Finally breaking out the other side, the two dropped the piercing shield for a few moments as the distance between them and the second cruiser closed. With seconds before impact, Meia shouted, "Hit it!" Shields up, Vandread-Meia smashed through the unknown alloy of the second ship's outer plating with just as much ease as the last warship. The starcraft shook intensely while it passed through the second ship's core.

Hibiki let out a loud cry as the _White Wing_ tore out the other side of the cruiser, a primal roar of victory sounding like an animal that just killed its prey. Meia couldn't help but grin as she looked back at the critically injured E-Human ships behind her. The first tilted forward and rotated awkwardly off course while the second began to rip itself apart. Bright rays of light shined through open portions of the hull as the cruiser's core destabilized. Explosions tore through the ship, sending debris and shrapnel everywhere around it. It wasn't long before the core burst open and tore the ship in two in one massive release of energy and plasma.

There were now two enemies left to deal with and one unknown. The cruiser with its shields still up fired again at the wounded newcomer, tearing the rear section of the ship off in one blast. The salvos that launched back and forth between the two ships seemed fiercer than when the three cruisers were focused on the _Nirvana_. Allied Vanguards and Dreads swarmed in on the remaining fighters and fought with them as Meia and the other Vandread pilots searched for Commander Prowl.

"Can anyone see him? Where the hell is that lizard?" Barnette asked. A few shots struck the ex-pirate ship, answering her question. Prowl was focusing his attention on the defenseless vessel. All he had to do was hit the _Nirvana_ a few more times.

Hibiki and Meia disconnected from one another as the two attacks drained all energy out of them. Panting to catch her breath, Meia altered her flight course to intercept the fighters headed her way. Even with one ship destroyed, the fight was far from over.

* * *

"Fire again, their shields can't stay up any longer!" Prowl barked at his bridge crew. The frigate ratted again as another pulse of plasma crossed the gap between _Hallowed Soul_ and the _Nirvana_. The hexagonal shielding pattern encasing the pirate ship was starting to collapse. "Again!" The crack of high velocity metal resounded through the ship again and again.

"Sir, incoming Dreads! About a dozen of them!"

"Cloak and pull out of here, bring us around to aid the _Lucifer_!" One of the Commander's cruisers was in combat with the hostile ship that jumped into the battle. By judging by the scars the ship had, it came from one battle into another. The only logical explanation was that the insurrectionists had control of it. Fortunately, it wouldn't last very long.

A stream of plasma flashed by the view screen, startling the Commander. "Sir, I think that rebel cruiser is targeting us!" Prowl had forgotten that the E-Human ships could track each other easily, even if _Hallowed Soul_ was cloaked.

Digging his claws into the edge of the holo-table, Prowl ordered, "Turn back and destroy that ship! I want this battle over with now!"

The battle was getting tight packed now as the carcass of _Midnight Terror_ and the disabled _Ghastly Fury_ tumbled towards the _Nirvana_. With almost no more Hydora fighters or Vanguards to defend, the remainder of this battle would have to rely on _Hallowed Soul_ and _Lucifer_ to win. That or hope that more reinforcements arrive.

Lining up a shot with the hostile cruiser, Commander Prowl shouted for all guns to fire. The main battery smashed a hole a few sections underneath the ship's bridge, a blow that most certainly would put an end to all of the its movements for the duration of the skirmish. _Hallowed Soul_ suddenly shook violently and the lights dimmed. "We've been hit hard! Vandread-Dita grazed our core, energy levels are becoming erratic, sir!" a bridge hand reported. It seemed, the young man had wised up and waited for Prowl to strike. The holo-table showed the False Human squadrons closing in on them.

Rage built up within the Commander as he realized they would launch everything they could at his beloved ship. But, Hibiki Tokai and his friends needed to be killed and Prowl knew just how. "Tell _Lucifer_ to get ready to jump out of system! All personnel, switch all system functions to autopilot! We're abandoning ship!"

* * *

"On me people! We're going in!" Valore ordered as she led the remaining Dreads and Vanguards towards the frigate with a hole in its side.

The E-Human ship was turning around as everyone closed in on it. With the exception of the cruiser on the other end of the battleground, nearly all of the Earth forces were defeated. Hibiki had done it. He and his friends took on three powerful warships and were now on the edge of victory. When everything was over, he would personally thank every surviving rebel on that ship that came to help them. But first, he and the Dread teams had to finish what Prowl had started.

"Look at that, they're running away!" a male Vanguard pilot laughed as _Hallowed Soul_ turned and moved towards its only operational companion.

"Outstanding work ladies and gentlemen! Out-fucking-standing!" Sub-Commander Buzam praised, something that was way too unusual for her. It appeared that ever since her secret got out a week ago, she'd been drifting back to her gruff male roots. Hibiki couldn't say he didn't like the new Sub-Commander's attitude, but it was still tough to get used to.

"On your mark, Valore. Let's do this in one swoop," Meia told, her voice filled with relief and joy as well.

The ships were just within striking distance when Parfet's voice entered the comm. "Paksis is picking up multiple small singularity readings as well as one big one!"

"More reinforcements?" Dita asked, tightening her grip on Hibiki's hands against _Blue Kachina_'s controls.

"No, they're coming from starships in the area!" Pyoro corrected. Scanning the outlines of the two E-Human vessels, Hibiki didn't see any ships leaving.

_Are they gonna jump within their own ships like I did?_

"Don't let them get away, hit them with everything we've got!" Gascogne yelled, pushing her refit ship to maximum thrust. As _Hallowed Soul_ drew closer, Hibiki noticed it wasn't the stealth frigate that was jumping away, but the cruiser escort. Was the support ship abandoning post? The idea that the command structure was collapsing under fear amused Hibiki, but he knew better than to expect the best so soon. As it turned out, his gut instinct was right.

The hull of the cruiser warped as all the E-Human ships seemed to do when they were in the middle of creating an artificial black hole. But, in the middle of the ABH process, _Hallowed Soul_ fired a single slug though the center of the cruiser.

"Holy crap! They're firing on each other now?" Bart asked. But whatever was happening inside of that ship wasn't a normal core explosion. With a sudden feeling of horror, Hibiki realized that he and the crew of the _Nirvana_ were about to witness firsthand what happens when an ABH drive is damaged or destroyed mid-jump.

Arcs of lighting were jumping from the ship and the cruisers around it. Its hull was being pulled inward into the mini singularity forming within the warship's core. _Hallowed Soul _shifted as it and the other E-Human vessels were pulled towards the chaotic storm. At the singularity's peak, all movement suddenly died down. The lightning storm ceased and the crippled starship was no longer being sucked into itself. For a moment, however brief it was, Hibiki thought the Commander's plan had failed, allowing for him to relax just a little bit. A giant mass of black then exploded forth from the center of the ship, completely engulfing it and causing it to disappear without a trace. The center of the singularity was pitch black and expanded slowly as everything in the region was pulled towards it. A halo of light bordered the edge of the black hole that was formed from the malfunction. Vandread-Dita shifted towards the expanding entity as did the Dreads and Vanguards around them. Hibiki wondered why no one was shouting for a retreat, but then realized that the black hole was probably sucking in all comms signals.

"Hibiki! We have to get to the others!" Dita said. Her voice had sounded strangely muffled, just like when they had shielded the Alliance Fleet from the black hole the Red Paksis created.

"We're moving at max velocity. The black hole's too powerful!" Hibiki responded. The destroyed cruisers crumbled apart under the pressure of the singularity's pull and the debris tumbled away into the black.

Vandread-Dita, being as big as it was, held back as many fellow pilots as it could as everyone slowly drifted to the black hole's point of no return. The proximity alarm brought the boy's attention to the ship's rear, recognizing with horror that the immobile _Nirvana_ was headed right for them. "Dita, hang on!" he shouted. The ivory starship crashed against the back of Vandread-Dita, pushing it dangerously closer to the black hole. He and she screamed with pain as they felt the pressure against the Vandread's hull. Bits of white metal from the exquisite starship behind them tore off and tumbled into the void ahead. Hibiki felt as if he were on fire as he felt the armor of the Vandread being tugged at in one direction and buckling under the weight of a huge starship in the other. He could imagine the terror on everyone's faces as the end neared. Was this really how it all was going to end? Hibiki hated being reminded that situations could go from bad to worse and fate always seemed kind enough to do so. The proximity alarm blared again, this time with a signature coming from the side.

An E-Human cruiser with a wrecked stern and bow came right at them at full speed. "Oh my god!" Dita pressed against Hibiki. With only second to spare, Hibiki held his love's hands tight and kept his arms wrapped tightly around her as the dark warship engulfed their view in black and ultimately threw Hibiki back into darkness.


	8. R & R

Opening her eyes slowly, Meia breathed a sigh of relief as soon as she realized she was still alive. The memory of the black hole was fresh in her mind and it seemed like she had blacked out for only a moment. The reddish ceiling she looked up at was not her Dread's, however. Recognizing that it didn't belong to any section of the _Nirvana_ she remembered, Meia felt panic rising within her.

_Where the hell am I? Damn, this bed's pretty comfortable…_

She slightly moved her head to the side to see what was around her. There was a man standing over the pilot laid on the bed beside Meia, with the row of occupied cots stretching down to the end of the room. The unconscious women displayed bandaged wounds on their bodies; some of them fitted with metallic braces for what she assumed were broken limbs. She recognized the pilots as her fellow pilots from the _Nirvana_, but Meia was positive she had never seen the man before. She hadn't gotten acquainted with all of the men who had joined the crew of the _Nirvana_, yet she was sure she'd remember someone wearing a long black scarf. Satisfied that her friends looked alright, she relaxed a bit. Taking a look to her right, Meia froze all motion in her body.

A pair of reptilian beings went from bed to bed, checking on all the unconscious women. There wasn't a doubt in Meia's mind that these were E-Humans. Their carnivorous dinosaur-like heads looked exactly as Hibiki had described and as the data disc had shown. Somehow, they were intimidating even without their armor bulky metal armor.

_If only we got to see everything on that disc._

Meia thought for a moment about how she was going to escape, working out how she would take down one of the gargantuan E-Humans without any immediate weapons. She was in thought for a few seconds when a hand touched her shoulder. "Looks like you're finally awake."

Meia looked up at the man's face to find she definitely didn't know who the man was. "Try not to move until we're sure the nano-band has taken care of that gash." Meia tried to sit up, but the sharp pain that shot up her side kept her down. The man gently held her shoulder down, saying, "That's what I meant. You don't want to move too much if you want to get out of here soon." A silver strip that resembled duct tape ran just under her ribs and out of sight to her back. This was also the first time Meia realized she wasn't wearing any clothes. The only covering she had at the moment were white bed sheets. "We kind of had to smash you guys against the _Nirvana_ before we tried an ABH jump. To tell you the truth, I thought that super black hole was going to tear the ship in two if we tried that, but I guess I was wrong." Nothing the person said made any sense, but then again, Meia distinctly remembered Hibiki saying something like "ABH" before. The man didn't appear to be a threat at the moment, but Meia kept her eye on him as he went over to the girl across from her. "Your Vanguard pilots are in the next room along with Hibiki. I figured you people weren't used to seeing each other…" The man eyed the thin sheets once before saying, "Well, you know."

"Salem," one of the E-Human doctors called. The reptilian human didn't seem to take any notice of Meia's conscious state and only addressed the human. Meia then noticed for the first time the reptilians had glowing red eyes. Not exactly glowing like light bulbs, but bearing a slight luminescence in their irises. "Commander Scyle is on the comm. He says the _Nirvana_'s gotten comms up and running."

The man clicked his tongue and looked back at Meia. "Looks like your friends are alright. I'll come back when you and your squadron's nearly one hundred percent. You've got a lot of catching up to do." With that, the man Meia only knew as Salem walked out of the room. She thought about stopping him because of all the questions swimming through her mind, but instead she laid there on her bed. Since she was in no shape to go anywhere for the moment, Meia closed her eyes.

_Damn, this bed is really, really comfortable._

* * *

"Well unless you can get the Paksis to fix our ship and yours phenomenally fast, you can expect Zeeron's forces to follow our trail back here within hours." Scyle had been trying to raise the _Nirvana_ on the comm for hours since the two ships came out of ABH travel, but the combined weight of two close proximity black holes disabled most of the systems on both ships. Scyle had hoped the people on board the other ship restored their life support systems as fast as his people had and by the look of it, they had. Ever since they established contact, the Commander and Captain Magno had been trying to figure out how they were going to get out of their current predicament.

"What of our crew? We know you have them and you better not have hurt them!" cried the long haired woman beside the Captain.

"Trust me; your pilots are better off under our care. Most of the Dreads are in enough shape to fly again soon, but we're still working on getting primary and secondary systems online," Scyle told. Judging by the images of the _Nirvana_ crew members looking back at him, he figured they weren't too grateful about the rescue. With a wild stunt like creating a black hole within another, Scyle didn't blame them. They were lucky to even be alive let alone be in the same galaxy. Scyle saved as many as he could, but he knew the _Nirvana_ lost at least a dozen pilots.

Scratching the side of his snout with a single claw, Scyle said, "We can shuttle our medical personnel to your ship if you wish, but we can't move your people until they've recovered and believe me, they'll come around quicker here than they will on your ship."

"Bullshit! You're lying!" yelled a woman off screen. Scyle sighed, knowing that he should have expected this sort of response from the besieged starship. Insults and accusations aside, Scyle was just glad to finally be out of combat. When he jumped into the battle with Commander Prowl, the Ghost Wolves and the Ashes of Humanity were still engaging loyalists on board the ship. Salem has yet to hear from two of his Wolves.

Captain Magno interrupted the younger women, saying, "That's enough. I think we at least owe the Commander our thanks for pulling us out of the brink." The elderly woman tried to sound firm, but Scyle could tell she was exhausted from the ordeal. "Commander, we're fine in terms of engineers and I'm sure your medical workers are swamped, but we just need some proof that our crew is safe."

Scyle nodded and pressed a few commands on the holo-table. "Here's our camera feed from the two infirmaries your people occupy." The Commander transmitted the two video streams to the Captain, reading their expressions as they observed their injured crew members. "Most of them have been under since the jump. Your Squadron Leader, Meia, is one of the few that has since woken."

The Captain smiled and shook her head. "Yeah, Meia was never one to stay down and out of a fight."

The doors behind Scyle opened as Salem and Crispy walked into the room. "Is that them?" Salem asked as he walked over to the Commander.

"Indeed it is." Scyle stepped aside so that Captain Magno could see him and the Ghost Wolf Captain.

"Captain Magno?" Salem seemed to already know who was looking back at him. "Captain Salem Citadel of the 1st Ghost Wolves Battalion. It's good to see another one of the old breed."

"Old breed?" The women looked at one another in confusion, clearly not understanding the Ghost Wolf's joke.

"I guess you haven't gotten through all the data I gave to Hibiki."

"We were interrupted." Magno smiled.

"Well, just make sure you get a good look at everything on that disc. Everything the E-Humans have done and plan to do is on it and your fleet needs to see it."

"We understand that, it's just that our ship can't exactly move right now."

Salem chuckled, replying, "So I've heard."

Another visual comm opened up to the med bay. "Salem, Hibiki Tokai has woken up and requests your presence," the E-Human told.

"How is he?"

The man was pushed aside as Hibiki stepped into view. "You assholes made me feel like crap for leaving, you know that?" the boy said.

_Heart of a soldier indeed._

"Captain, I think your star player's good to go," Salem said, looking to Magno. "Keep your hangar open, we'll be along shortly." With the feed winking off, Salem turned to Scyle. "Murdock and Marcus have finally come back. They're helping with the sweep in the rear of the ship. Zeeron's buddies are still creeping around back there."

_Insolent fools._

Scyle held in his growl as he thought. "I don't want any enemies lurking around this ship, not after what we had to do to get it."

"Don't want them repeating our strategy?" Salem asked with a grin. The Ghost Wolves all seemed to have the same morbid sense of humor that Scyle somewhat shared. He supposed their combined battlefield experience lent way to that.

Returning the grin, Scyle replied, "Unless they come up with original ideas, I don't want them here."

* * *

Dita paced back and forth in front of Meia, biting her nails and looking at the clock on the computer. "It's been too long. Where is he?" It was clear the girl was traumatized by the boy's recent disappearance and she was beating herself up over letting him get out of her sight again.

Meia couldn't say she liked having E-Humans around either, but at least Hibiki trusted them. "Dita, take a seat, he only went back to the ship. We're the ones on an alien ship." Dita didn't seem to be comforted by the information. Instead, she just kept walking back and forth.

Most of the pilots had recovered enough from their injuries to be up and about. The E-Humans carted in their belongings, or at least what was left of them, and vacated so that the _Nirvana_ pilots could get dressed. The men in the other room seemed okay when Meia checked up on them. Vanguard pilots were much more prone to critical injuries and death whenever their ships were damaged. Seeing them in good shape meant they were better pilots than she had originally thought.

"So, how bad do you think it is?" Barnette asked, adjusting the metal flower attached to her headband.

"The _Nirvana_ or our current problem?" Jura retorted.

"That man said he'd be back, but he never returned," Meia told. She wondered where the man with the scarf went, but she figured he went back to the bridge, wherever that was. Getting to her feet for the first time, she felt almost normal. The doctors came by and removed the strip that covered her wound, revealing nothing but a small scar line that they said would disappear after a while.

_I bet Duelo would love to get his hands on those._

Not wanting to stay put any longer, Meia headed for the door. Partial interest in her new surroundings also provided some motivation to leave.

Barnette called out, "Where are you going?"

"The bridge. I want to see what's going on." Upon stepping into the hallway, she stopped when she saw the two guards on either side of the doorway.

"Ma'am." one nodded his head. They didn't seem intent on stopping her and neither did the E-Humans that walked by.

"Where's the bridge?" Meia straightened up, keeping her appearance as a Squadron Leader up to par.

"Take that next turn and keep walking until you reach a particularly larger hallway. Follow it left to the end and you'll be where you need to be, ma'am."

Meia looked towards the T-junction and back to the E-Human. She didn't exactly expect him to be so polite. "Thank you," she said to him, feeling bad that she imagined him and his kind to be more feral.

Walking down the corridor of the strange ship, Meia found that the E-Humans knew more about her than she had thought. Warriors stepped aside as she passed, bowing their heads and placing their fists over their hearts. Some even greeted her as "Squadron Leader" before doing so. The more she was around the evolved humans, the more she felt at peace. An enemy would not have been this respectful, Commander Prowl proved that. The short trek through the cruiser also revealed to Meia just how this ship was seized. Scorch marks covered the floors and walls along with stray splotches of blood. The smell of molten metal was evident along with the stench of burnt flesh.

_These guys must have cleaned up the bodies quick. How many of them had to die just to help us?_

Once Meia reached the main hall, she saw that it was filled with even more E-Humans. Most of them didn't seem to be going anywhere, but were waiting around and talking. "SL Gisborn, nice of you to join us!" Meia turned towards the voice to see another human soldier. The darker skinned man was just as big as Gascogne, but was still a bit smaller than the reptilian humans he stood with. "It's good to see we didn't crush you guys with our little stunt. Commander Scyle's expecting you, ma'am."

Meia felt completely out of place on board the E-Human cruiser. Plasma scarring on the walls, reptile-like humans in combat armor and soldiers from the past seemed like the makings of a scenario from a sci-fi movie. The sights and smells of close quarters combat that remained brought on a dreadful revelation: Meia and everyone she knew would be experiencing this firsthand very soon.

When the doors to the bridge opened, the revealed room was filled with commotion as personnel walked from station to station to get the ship up and running again. Meia wondered if the _Nirvana_ was under this much chaos as well. In the center of the room were two more humans conversing with an E-Human with far less bulky armor than the others. The warrior in black noticed the woman's presence and waved her over. "Miss Gisborn, welcome to the bridge. How are you feeling?"

The two men were wearing the same gear as the first soldier had been. One of them peeked over the frames of his glasses as Meia neared. By the way he looked at her from top to bottom, it was clear he wasn't from Taraak.

"I'm alright. Does everyone on the ship know who I am?"

"Just about," told the second man with unusually bright green eyes. The E-Human introduced himself as Commander Scyle, as if Meia hadn't already figured that out. The man with glasses called himself Crispy while the other was named Marcus. Meia had just read their last names on their uniforms before they told her. "Your boy Hibiki is on the _Nirvana_. Tough little guy, isn't he?" Meia chuckled at the remark. Hibiki would have been furious to hear a statement about his size, even if the person stating it was a trained killer.

"More functions have been restored to both ships, but we suspect that we'll be engaging a search party very soon," told Scyle.

"I can't do anything about that without a Dread."

Scyle grinned and activated the holographic projection in front of him. "Your Dread suffered heavy damage along the port side, but we think we can get it back to normal in about a half an hour. Hibiki's Vanguard and Dita's Dread are surprisingly in much better shape considering they took the brunt of the impact."

Meia wouldn't be able to do anything against an attack without her fighter, but from the look of it, she'd be without it for a while. Scyle may have said thirty minutes, but the crushed hull of the Dread looked like it would need more time than that. "How many ships are we expecting?" she asked.

Marcus scoffed, "Think of it like this: Zeeron really wants Hibiki dead and the data we took destroyed. He also won't be happy to know we took out his first group of hounds."

"Even if we could move, how long will it take for us to get back to Mejere?"

"We're drifting into that ice cloud just bordering your homeworld. If we can get the ABH drive to work, we can get there in less than an hour."

Meia leaned forward against the table as she studied the form of the _Nirvana_. "What about our drive?" she thought.

Scyle's head cocked to the side out of curiosity. "What drive? You have an artificial black hole driver?"

"Yes." Meia reached out and pointed to a section of the _Nirvana_, not realizing that the computer would suddenly enhance the image based off of her movement.

_Wow, we can certainly use this on the Nirvana._

"We were in orbit over Mejere when the Paksis covered up this entire section of the ship with crystal like it did when it fused the Mejerian and Taraakian ships together. When we came back, the core was larger and the engines had been transformed into one room with some sort of device that brought us to where Hibiki was instantaneously." Meia had never seen an ABH drive so she couldn't exactly speculate as to what the device was.

"ABH drives don't have instantaneous travel times, do they?" Crispy looked to Scyle.

"No, they don't, especially with a jump like that. But one controlled by the Paksis would definitely have its benefits and that at least explains how you got to Hibiki before we did."

_We actually have better tech than the Earth Fleet does? Go figure._

"Anyway, the Paksis was injured in the last fight, forcing us to stay and defend it. I was thinking we can get the two ships close and see if the Paksis feeds off of your ship's energy to heal itself."

The expression on Crispy's face said that he had no faith in the plan at all. The others looked at one another with equally unsure expressions. "There's no way it can do that. How can it just 'feed off of' another ship?" he asked.

Meia found herself explaining before she even thought up the words. "The Paksis is energy and it responds to energy. The cores of all starships were designed by the Paksis Pragma and are, by default, a part of it. It'll just be taking back energy it gave."

"Have you ever done something like this before?" Marcus didn't seem too convinced of the idea either.

"No, but the Paksis hasn't sustained this much damage before. This is the only idea I've got," Meia told. Even to her, the whole premise seemed ridiculous, but there was nothing else that could possibly fix the two ships before E-Human reinforcements arrived.

Pining over the idea for a moment, Scyle finally said, "Hail Salem over the comm and tell him to send back Hibiki. We're going to need that blue Vandread to do some heavy lifting if this is going to work."

* * *

It was relieving to see the Paksis Pragma again. Salem had last seen the living energy source a century ago, yet he remembered seeing it as if it were the other day. Of course, this time around it was much larger and suffering.

Crystals sealed off the far wall of the domed structure where an E-Human plasma slug breached the hull and hit the core. The Paksis was quick enough to seal off the ship, but it hadn't recovered much from the attack. The portion of the glowing orb that was hit was pitch black and emitted no glow whatsoever. The bluish glow it normally exhibited was a lot duller and portions of red peeked through on occasion.

"You're going to be just fine buddy. We've got help on the way." The response was slight, but the Paksis did seem to react to the Captain's words.

"You think Meia's plan will work?" asked the engineer in the bright orange jumpsuit behind him.

_She's Parfet, right?_

"The SL sounds like she knows what she's talking about. I bet she was an engineer in another life."

"Well, her ohma ran a power plant back on Mejere and her fahma was a scientist."

"Explains a lot."

Parfet was the first person Salem met on the _Nirvana_ that didn't seem on edge. He supposed they were expecting another deception from the Earthborn humans, which even included him. Eyes were on him every step of the way, making him glad he didn't bring any E-Humans with him. Figuring she trusted him enough, he tried to get as much information from her as he could.

"How many casualties do you guys have? No one seems to tell me anything."

Parfet sighed, pressing against the railing looking to the floor below. "Duelo and Paiway are pretty much on their own in the infirmary. All the Dread and Vanguard pilots were hurt in some way and I lost a few staff when the Paksis was hit…" The girl's voice trailed off as she remembered. The shock of such a close range impact must have been immense. Salem couldn't imagine what it felt to see a group of people he knew suddenly vanish in one massive blast right before his eyes. Parfet not being able to do anything about the situation in her section of the starship probably made things worse.

Wanting to say something positive, Sale told the Chief Engineer, "Well if your Squadron Leader's right, we'll be on Mejere and Taraak's doorsteps in no time." The bespectacled girl gave a forced smile, probably well aware that the peace would be short lived.

_Poor girl._

Salem left for the bridge again, sure that the crippled E-Human cruiser was headed their way now. Hibiki had eagerly agreed to help move the ships together. Either he knew that they didn't have much time before the Supreme Commander arrived or he felt he owed something to the Ghost Wolves and insurrectionists for saving him twice. Whichever was the case, it appeared everyone would be getting out of dodge sooner than expected.

* * *

Jacob felt refreshed after coming back to his station from break. Hours staring at the stars from the safety of a Taraakian control room was interesting work at first, but eventually grew dull. Sure, he would get lucky once and a while and catch a star exploding or see asteroids impacting a distant planet, but those breathtaking views were so far and between that he didn't hold his breath in hopes that he would be seeing something interesting anytime soon. While his job wasn't exactly staring up at distant bodies through a telescope, Jacob found that's exactly what he did to pass time.

The orbital telescope controller sat within a large windowless room that was filled with rows of terminals and computer screens. On the far end of the room was one massive screen that usually displayed a three-dimensional layout of the space around Taraak with satellites and other space faring objects labeled with their registration numbers and official names. At any given time, there were at least fifty people in the room, but now there were much less.

For the past few days, the room had been packed with people scanning the system for the presence a lost Vanguard, specifically Hibiki Tokai's Vanguard. It was bad enough that he, the person that led Taraak and Mejere to victory against Earth, disappeared without a trace, but tensions grew worse when the _Nirvana_ suddenly vanished from Mejere's orbit while under the watch of nearly every starship in the Mejerian Navy. The room then became even more packed as people searched for the missing people. Now that it was eleven o'clock at night, the high command ordered that everyone take a break for the night. Jacob was one of the few that volunteered to stick around for a while longer.

_Lucky me._

"Did anyone else happen to vanish while I was gone?" Jacob asked as he took his seat.

"Pfft. Yeah, imagine if another dropped off the grid. I don't think we'd ever leave this room," replied the middle aged man sitting behind him.

The handful of controllers and operators left in the room had been in their seats since the whole search began this morning. It comforted Jacob to know that he wasn't the only one dedicated to his job. Typing in his password for his particular station, Jacob went back to searching the stars with the small group of orbital telescopes he had under his control.

_Let's try… here!_

Jacob punched in star coordinates for the scopes to look. He figured he'd look in the areas the _Nirvana_ had been, according to the data received from the spook working along with the female ex-pirates on the ship. It was funny that the Spec Op planned on sabotaging the ship, but then suddenly had a change of heart. It was something Jacob expected to see on some dumb daytime drama. After a few minutes of searching the quadrant, Jacob decided he would switch to manual controls. Controlling a satellite by remote wasn't as precise as letting the AI control it, but its response time was shorter and it helped scan areas quicker.

_Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope._

The visual sweep went on for a half an hour before Jacob became extremely bored. He and the others called out jokes and stories to one another as they worked, but the mass boredom crossing the room couldn't be stopped. On the verge of falling asleep, Jacob wiped the dust on his screen, moving just to keep his eyes open.

_What the hell?_

Wiping again, he realized there was no dust on the screen at all. The particles he was seeing were coming from the feed. "Let's see…" The screen went blank as the telescope took a few seconds to zoom in on the objects. Expecting space dust or passing asteroids, Jacob was stunned when the high quality images came through. "Holy shit!"

Hundreds, no, thousands of unknown starships filled the view. There was an entire fleet of unknowns sitting around in the middle of nowhere. One ship in particular dwarfed all the others around it, looking almost like a planet among asteroids. Jacob didn't have to know much about warships to know that those were guns lining the hulls of all those ships.

"Connor! I need a distance measurement here!" Jacob called out, already counting how many ships were on screen.

"What? What's wrong?"

"I've got a shitload unidentified warships here and I need to know how far they are from us!" Losing count again, Jacob looked back at the others. "Get everyone you can on the line! Call control and tell them to send their techs back here!" he called out. People who looked half asleep a second ago were suddenly on their feet as news spread. Everyone was shouting to one another as more people came into the room from break. More images of the unidentified vessels appeared on the big screen along with star maps and estimated coordinates.

"What the hell? We've got two new signatures in system, just beyond the defense grid!"

"Jacob, what the hell is that?" The man behind Jacob was pointing to his screen. Jacob turned to see his telescope automatically zoomed out to acquire the two new targets, ones that were far closer than the mysterious fleet. One was a heavily damaged ship, one that was much larger than even the largest warship in the Taraakian Navy. Scars of combat ravaged the strange ship's hull, so many that Jacob wondered how it was still running. The other starship was an even bigger surprise to see.

"It's the _Nirvana_! The _Nirvana_'s in sensor range!"

"No way! Can anybody confirm?"

"Yeah that's the _Nirvana_ alright. It's still transmitting Grand Pa's Ikazuchi registration numbers."

"Get Naval Command on the line and tell them to hold fire!"

Comm transmissions filled the air and soon the control room was packed with the usual amount of people. In just a minute, Jacob was energized and ready to do his job. Yet, the thought of the _Nirvana_'s resurfacing brought on even more relief. After today, he could finally get some sleep.


	9. Home At Last

"How many does that make?"

"1,752, my liege. We're still trying to get an estimate of how many warriors we lost."

"And of the 1,752, how many of those are in insurrectionist hands?"

"We don't know, but we guess no more than half."

Zeeron growled at that statement, digging his claws into his palms almost to the point of drawing blood. What made him angrier than having his fleet attacked from within were unknowns. Unknowns couldn't be factored into any equations and didn't allow for plans to go smoothly. He knew this to be true because Operation Retribution played on the fact that the Earth Fleet was an unknown to the people of the Alliance Fleet, unless Commander Prowl fails his task of course.

Looking around the war room, Zeeron could tell his Generals and Admirals were displeased with the reports as well. Claws rapped against the metallic surface of the table and the heavy agitated breaths of the reptilian humans filled the air. A handful of them were missing, most likely killed in action during the surprise attacks. Zeeron had taken notice that one of the more aggressive Generals had new scars on his already worn armor along with his particularly hostile attitude. The Supreme Commander admired a leader that could still hold his own in combat and was still willing to fight alongside his men. It was one of the reasons why he favored his Army leaders more than his starship commanders. Of course, whether or not his leaders still displayed adequate fighting abilities didn't change the statistics very much nor did it give an explanation for 5th Fleet's absence.

"Supreme Commander, a battle group just exited out of ABH," someone suddenly reported over the comm.

"Bring up the star map," Zeeron ordered. One of the Shipmasters leaned over and activated the holographic projector.

Whirring to life, the holographic projections changed to different colors as the computer rendered out the new images. Suddenly, the 3D rendering of seven ships pulling into the massive fleet's formation was hovering in front of the E-Human commanders. It only took a quick glance at their call signs to tell that the seven starships were all part of the second search party that followed Commander Prowl's battle group two days ago. Each one of the ships looked to be in perfect shape, but they were ordered to return only to bring back the first battle group. The fact that _Hallowed Soul_ and the ships that accompanied it were currently absent must have meant something went wrong. Considering their mission was to kill one pubescent boy, Zeeron found it hard to believe that the False Human sympathizer took on three cruisers and a hi-tech stealth frigate on his own. His Vanguard couldn't possibly be that powerful.

One of the ships began blinking on the projector, signaling a comms transmission. As the star map beeped, the others in the room looked to their Supreme Commander for his orders. "Bring it up. I want an explanation for Commander Prowl's absence." With a nod, the same E-Human who had switched on the star map pressed on the ship's icon, causing a hologram of the caller to spring up. Zeeron was shocked to see that it was the Special Operations Commander himself. "Prowl, you better have a good reason as to why my one-of-a-kind frigate is not with you."

Prowl smiled despite the threat and replied, "It appears the crew of the _Nirvana_ is capable of more than we expected, my liege."

_The Nirvana? There's no way…_

"Explain, Commander, and take note I'm particularly pissed off today," Zeeron warned.

"My liege, if you don't mind, I would like to relay this information in person. I know you'd want to see what I've recorded from the skirmish." Prowl sounded convinced that he had something very vital in his possession. If the Commander failed his mission, then he wouldn't dare come aboard _Sui Generis_ at the risk of getting his bowels torn out by Zeeron personally.

"Hurry it up, Commander. We've pre-battle plans to discuss here." Commander Prowl had the sole ability of brightening up the Supreme Commander's day. Either he'd have very good news, or the news will be disappointing, in which Zeeron would then have someone to take his built up aggression out on. It's been a while since he's torn apart something with his razor sharp claws.

* * *

The mighty Earthen flagship, _Sui Generis_, had definitely seen better days. The hangar Commander Prowl landed in was filled with debris and bodies. Portions of overhead beams had collapsed and destroyed dropships were strewn all over the tarmac. A Vanguard was pushing piles of indistinguishable hunks of metal out of the translucent blue energy barrier that sealed off the hangar from the vacuum of deep space. A piece of metal tapped against his foot as he walked through the wreckage. Kneeling down to pick it up, Prowl made out the familiar form of a pauldron with a scarred picture of a barbed wire wrapped Earth painted onto it, the insignia of the Earth Grand Fleet.

_The False Human lovers are going to pay for this._

Corridor after corridor, Prowl got a good look at the extensive damage done to the ship. Plasma scorches lined nearly all surfaces and the all too familiar aroma of charred meat clouded the air. Wounded warriors lined the edges of the halls and medics ran back and forth between them. The Commander suddenly felt very hungry. As he neared the briefing room, the number of Honor Guard present increased exponentially. The Supreme Commander wasn't taking any chances with his life. He had and war in motion and couldn't be killed in its early stages by dissenters. Reaching the once elaborately decorated main hall, Commander Prowl found even more soldiers and Honor Guard in position, ready for another attack from the Ashes of Humanity. Walking down the trashed hall, the Commander was still greeted with salutes. Obviously they knew he had been sent after Hibiki and assumed his mission went well. That or they were just showing respect before imminent execution.

Upon entering the briefing room, the Commander was surprised to find a larger audience than he'd expected. "My liege," the Commander knelt as soon as he saw the Supreme Commander heading for him. The way he carried himself informed Prowl of how annoyed Zeeron was.

"You mentioned the _Nirvana_, Commander. Why?" Zeeron seemed intent on getting down to business. Not wanting to keep the Supreme Commander waiting any longer.

Prowl walked over to the table and inserted a data disc into the console built into it. "It seems the boy's friends were capable of more than we knew. Upon exiting ABH, we detected lingering traces of dark matter. The amount was way more than a UD-22 could possibly release. The fact we were staring the _Nirvana_ in the face meant only they could have jumped into the area. One of my cruisers managed to get a shot in before they could bring up their shields, scoring a direct hit through the core."

The battle began playing out before the high command, allowing for Prowl to gauge their responses. "I deployed several squadrons of Vanguards and SF-53s to dispatch their defending Dread and Vanguard forces, but it became apparent that they were all very well trained. Their more veteran pilots that had fought the Harvest prior to the engagement with the Paksis Pragma exhibited exceptional dog fighting skills."

_Hallowed Soul_ had collected visual data from all the ships in the conflict so that viewers of said data could view the battle from countless angles, whether it is from a starfighter's perspective or that of an automated defense turret. Zeeron leaned into the images and narrowed his eyes as he observed Prowl's recent encounter.

"Throughout the skirmish, I had been successful in shadowing Hibiki and Meia's Vandread while lack of support from the _Nirvana_'s main weapons allowed for my battle group to weather away the pirate ship's shields."

The cannons blasts from the three warships illuminated the screen as the plasma covered slugs smashed against the blue hexagonal barrier around the _Nirvana_.

"There isn't a single ship in our fleet that can withstand such attacks… with the exception of our liege's flagship, of course," commented one of the Admirals.

"Indeed, but it wouldn't have lasted," Commander Prowl corrected. "Readings showed that the ship's energy levels were waning and would have collapsed if that rebel controlled ship hadn't intervened."

The scarred vessel began firing at Prowl's battle group immediately after it exited ABH. Watching the battle once more, Prowl had to admire the rebel Commander's skill in ship-to-ship combat. No mere innie could command a ship with that ability without any prior training in the Supreme Commander's armada. A part of him hoped it was the traitor Scyle, but he knew he was trapped on board _Sui Generis_ with the Ghost Wolves at the time. There was no way he could have gotten out of system, let alone steal a whole cruiser in such short time.

The recordings were now showing the concluding moments of the battle when Prowl had only one ship left in his command. The _Nirvana_ and its remaining squadrons moved in to attack the now unmoving _Hallowed Soul_ and the only intact starship on the Earth Fleet's side.

"I figured the only way to take down the _Nirvana_ at this point was to sacrifice one of your ships to generate a black hole, my liege." Whatever his intentions were, Prowl was sure he'd catch flak for firing on a friendly vessel without warning. But he was also sure the Supreme Commander would understand such a maneuver. The recordings ceased after the _Lucifer_ was hit. The following moments, as the Commander recalled, were of him running for his life to the hangar to jump out of system before the unstable singularity engulfed the ship.

Commander Prowl looked back at his leader after a second of silence. "I honestly can't guarantee that Hibiki and his friends are dead, but they won't be anywhere near enough to their home system to aid their vermin friends."

Surely the Supreme Commander would have been happier knowing the exact fate of the pirates, the somewhat disappointed look on his face revealed that. Even so, he said to Prowl, "I hope you won't need to 'sacrifice' any more of my ships when Retribution is in full swing."

Commander Prowl shook his head, fighting back a laugh. "No, my liege, I won't."

Nodding to one of the Generals, the Supreme Commander requested for the battle plans to be brought up. "Now that we have a major obstacle out of the equation, we can now have our standby fleets participating with more hands-on roles."

The Supreme Commander took the news of Hibiki's demise rather lightly, thought Prowl. Perhaps he had held in his relief to keep from seeming afraid of the teen. None of that mattered now, of course. The fleet was on the eve of battle, one that would drag on for months even if it went well. Pushing Hibiki Tokai, the _Nirvana_ and the pretty face of Dita Liebely out of his mind, Prowl stood beside his Supreme Commander, arms crossed, and observed the final adjustments to the Earth Fleet's final solution to the False Human problem.

* * *

Salem only got one step out of the airlock before he spotted hundreds of weapons pointed at him. Mejerian and Taraakian soldiers filled the hangar along with a pair of Vanguards. Considering he was coming out of Captain Magno's personal shuttle, he expected the welcome to be a little friendlier.

"Hey, what the hell is this?" Hibiki asked, pushing past the Ghost Wolf and shoving the leveled weapons down. "Do we look like enemies to you? How short is your memory?"

Some of the soldiers looked at one another, ashamed that they were following their orders, despite their judgment. An officer pushed through the group, not bothering to order to troops to stand down. "We're sorry if you find our measures a bit inconvenient, but the current situation dictates that we heighten security.

_You're not impressing anyone with your uptight officer education, asshole._

Salem harbored a particular hatred for officers, especially when they were fresh out of whatever academy they came from. He preferred the long lost ways in which ranks were earned through combat experience, not through the pockets of rich boys' mommies and daddies. But, Salem understood what the man was talking about, or at least he thought he did.

"That ship accompanying you belongs to a potentially hostile force and will be detained with all crew. You of the _Nirvana_ are to be brought before the Alliance Council immediately."

"Looks like they're a step ahead of us," mused Gascogne.

"May we ask what hostile force you speak of?" asked Magno. The thought that the Alliance Fleet somehow found out about the Earth Fleet already relieved Salem. By the looks of things, the Alliance was already building itself up, albeit in the wrong place. Nonetheless, it was a start. Salem and Hibiki won't have to tell them much to prepare them for the coming horde. That was just a hope, though.

"Just lead the way, Sergeant Major. We were hoping to see your leaders as soon as possible," Salem told.

"But what about…" Hibiki tried to speak out, but Salem interrupted him.

"Everyone on board _Shadow Killer_ will be fine. Scyle knows not to aggravate people pointing guns at him, and so do I." Hibiki took the hint and nodded, a sour look crossing his face. "Captain…" Salem turned to Magno. "Tell your helmsman to hold his position. Tell him to tell Commander Scyle to ready some early Christmas presents for our friends here." Magno grinned, understanding perfectly what he meant.

A short armed escort later, the landing party was onboard another shuttle, this time heading for Mejere down to Halo City. "Two visits to the Palace weeks apart? I feel so popular," Magno joked.

"I'm guessing the first time was because of him," said Salem, motioning to Hibiki.

Buzam answered, "Yes. Why they want us back there so badly though, is beyond me."

"Maybe they wised up because of that message pod."

Salem raised an eyebrow. "What message pod?"

"The one from Melanis," told Rebecca. She looked to Hibiki and said, "Just after your capture, a message pod arrived from Melanis…"

"Saying they were under attack," Salem finished for her.

Everyone seemed startled by his sudden response and Rebecca's eyes narrowed slightly. "You knew?" All eyes were on Salem now. He knew there would be suspicions about him, the Ghost Wolves and the E-Humans on _Shadow Killer_. Salem knew from hundreds of videos what happened at Melanis. Last he checked, about 200,000 females were now in E-Human hands. Even worse was that they weren't all grownups.

"I was with him when Zeeron talked about Melanis," Hibiki butted in. "We found out at the same time."

Once again, Salem noticed that the attack on the Melanic homeworld hit Hibiki really hard. The Ghost Wolf learned all he could about the first encounter the boy had with a Harvest flagship. An entire fleet getting wiped out by a single ship was something that no one could fathom. Now the planet belonging to the same people was wiped out by only a fraction of the E-Human grand fleet. How the Alliance Fleet would react to this information was beyond Salem, but he figured he'd find out soon enough.

"Uhh, where are we going?" Gascogne was looking out the window. Salem got up from his seat to get a better look. The Mejerian Guards shouted for him to sit down, but he ignored them. The shuttle was lowering into a plaza in front of a large complex. The golden apex of the dome in the center of the large building glistened in the bright light of the midsummer day.

"This is the Palace?" he asked, looking back at the native Mejerians. "Spacious."

Hibiki was at the window beside him with his jaw dropped. "Nothing on Taraak looks like that!"

"Women like to pretty things up more than us guys do."

The shuttle landed in a cleared space near the center of the plaza. As soon as the doors opened, the roar of large crowd filled the air. "Well? Let the people know their star is alright!" Salem said to Hibiki. He stepped to the side of the doorway and gestured for the boy to exit the craft. Hibiki hesitated for a moment, staring outside at the thousands of people. Salem felt the same nervousness once upon a time, as did anyone who'd been declared a hero. That sort of title meant one had to live up to certain expectations and in Salem's eyes, Hibiki had most certainly earned the name.

The young Vanguard pilot slapped a big grin on his face and said, "Let's just get this over with."

The crowd grew louder as Hibiki stepped out into the light. The primarily Mejerian mass of people cheered for the once missing pilot as he walked the red carpet laid out for him. Fanfare played over the cheering and confetti. A dozen or so Dreads shot by with colored trails of smoke behind them. The red, blue and purple clouds blocked out the sun for a moment while the starfighters disappeared behind skyscrapers. Crafts hovering over the event bore insignias of news stations, all of them most likely fixed on Hibiki.

Salem didn't realize until then that the air he breathed was the freshest he'd ever inhaled. Earth's air was dense from pollution and smelled of smoke, garbage and fuel mixed together. Starships had recycled air that didn't seem to have a smell at all, so the mind was very aware it wasn't breathing normal air. Mejere was the first planet he'd been on that felt right, even though he was within one of the largest cities ever built.

_So this is what Earth looked like before I was born…_

The group had made their way to the steps leading up to the main entrance of the Palace. Grand Ma's Royal Guards were waiting for them along with a platoon's worth of soldiers from both Taraak and Mejere. Every one of them was armed with electro staffs and assault rifles. Just looking at the weapons, Salem wasn't impressed. If Crispy or Murdock were with him, they'd probably be laughing and making jokes about the poorly armed security. More and more, Salem was learning that the majority Mejerian technology was focused on starships and terraforming equipment and not personal defense weapons, another problem the Ghost Wolves and E-Human rebels would have to address in very short time.

The armed guards parted before Hibiki and allowed for him and the rest of the landing party to pass without a word. They then followed the group into the structure while the doors closed behind the landing party. Abruptly, the sounds of celebration and cheer vanished from Salem's ears, all of it replaced with a steady silence.

A part of the Captain wanted to stop to get a look at the grand hall of the Palace of Grand Ma. Hibiki, however, was already heading down the corridor ahead with a huge set of doors on the far end.

"If this place is still here when this is all over, I'll make sure you get the grand tour," Captain Magno told the soldier.

Salem nodded and followed her along. "Yeah, 'if' is the magic word."

"Have faith Ghost Wolf," told Buzam. "Lord knows these people won't have any when we're through with them."

_Ain't that a bitch?_

While there was a security detail following behind the group, the main hallway was completely bare, with the exception of the four Mejerians standing at attention in front of the doorway.

"No light show today?" asked Buzam, looking up at the ceiling.

"Guess not. Unlike the people outside, I get the feeling everyone in here isn't in a good mood."

Salem had to agree with the Captain. The soldiers seemed too wound up to be doing normal security and the places they had been to outside of public view didn't seem very cheerful, which was a hard thing to do since the Mejerians used white to color so many things. It made him think about how bleak the Taraakian royal palace must seem.

The guards moved to the sides of the hall and the door opened. Hibiki glanced back at Salem and the others, waiting for them to catch up.

"Not getting cold feet now, are you?" the soldier asked.

He stood there, hesitant to either enter the room or answer, or both. "You think they'll listen to me?" he asked.

Salem shook his head. Hibiki still doubted himself when he'd done so much already. For a kid who acts cocky among friends, he was pretty humble. "Hibiki, if they haven't learned to trust you by now, then that means I picked the wrong team."

"I'll take any bets," Gascogne remarked.

The Vanguard pilot smiled at the response. "That's all I need to know."

They entered the grand court to see a room once again filled with people. Just from the way they were dressed, Salem knew these weren't everyday citizens. No matter what time period, it was easy to spot the wealthy and powerful. "Some things never change," he mumbled.

While cries of joy and celebration did not fill the room, the air grew dense with murmurs and whispers. Of course they recognized Hibiki and the crew of the _Nirvana_, but they had no idea who the armed soldier was. Salem suddenly felt more out of place than he had before. He decided to keep his eyes ahead and follow Hibiki to the stage. There didn't seem to be anywhere for them to sit, so going directly before the heads of the Alliance Fleet was the most logical thing to do.

He and the teen were about three meters away when Grand Pa suddenly stood. Grand Ma had an expression of shock on her face similar to the Taraakian ruler's. Both were staring directly at Salem as if he were a mythological or supernatural being.

"You… step forward!" Grand Pa said, pointing at the Ghost Wolf. Hibiki looked back at him, confused as much as the other members of the _Nirvana_. Salem, after getting a look at those accompanying him, stepped closer to the stage and lowered his scarf to be sure the high command saw his face. The oldest Mejerians and Taraakians nearly gasped in unison when they saw who he was. Grand Pa and Grand Ma both approached the soldier.

_Wait a minute…_

Salem had made a point of getting to know nearly everyone in the colonization fleet he was attached to. Even as old as the leaders of Mejere and Taraak were, Salem identified who the two were just as soon as they identified him.

"Zen and Anri. I hope you two had a pleasant journey."

Grand Pa's look of surprise turned quickly into a smile. "It's been a century since we've been here. You're a bit late aren't you, Captain Citadel?" asked Zen, leader of Taraak.

"I took the scenic route. Kind of ran into the Earth Grand Fleet." Grand Pa's face was serious again. "So you know what's coming?" Salem asked.

"Not as much as you and Hibiki know, I'm sure." Salem looked to Hibiki motioning for him to give them the data disc in his pocket. Hibiki hopped up onto the stage and dug into his pocket.

He had only gotten the disc out for a moment before Grand Ma hugged him. Hibiki seemed as stunned by the gesture as everyone else in the room was. Expecting Grand Pa to have a somewhat similar reaction, Salem saw that Zen put his hand on Hibiki's shoulder. Even with a century apart, the two were still capable of showing love to their long lost son.

Grand Ma said in a low tone, "It's been too long since I've held you in my arms, Hibiki. Too long."

Grand Pa nodded, adding, "This is the greeting you needed a week ago, my boy."

A lot has changed in a few weeks. People were just starting to grasp the concept of how fragile life was. It didn't matter if they all understood now, because they'd all get a firsthand lesson very soon.

Anri stepped back from Hibiki with a smile on her face. Zen had the same grin, one that resembled Hibiki's cocky smirk perfectly. A proud father of a proud son. Anri then received the data disc from Hibiki and stepped back to her podium as did Zen. Hibiki looked at Salem from the corner of his eye, his face red but bearing the expression of happiness. With the exception of the E-Humans, Salem hadn't really seen that emotion from his own people ever since the defrost. In the next hour or so, there wouldn't be anything to smile about.

* * *

"Listen, you dick, I told you that shit wasn't going to work!" After digging into the tool box, Crispy tossed a plasma cutter at Murdock's feet. "Try that one. I'm telling you that's the one."

"Bull."

"I'd listen to him…"

Crispy grinned upon hearing Meia's statement. "You see? She knows what I'm talking about."

"To hell with both of you then!" Murdock grudgingly grabbed the tool and got back to work on the UD-22.

Crispy hated the down times between combat. Sure, he was happier when he wasn't in the middle of a war, but now that he was in one, he'd rather be fighting 24/7 than sitting around while the enemy regrouped. Then again, he supposed there was nothing he could do about that. A few billion reptilian human soldiers weren't going to be stopped very easily and neither were the dozens of warships sitting outside of the ship. He glanced around the hangar, taking in the scenery.

The room was packed with E-Humans and starships. UD-22s and SF-53s were crammed into the room by the hundreds as the large group tried to repair each and every one of them. After the trip back to Alliance Fleet space, the seriously messed up E-Human cruiser was surrounded by dozens of Alliance warships. The _Nirvana_, of course, was free to go, along with Salem and Hibiki. The two were lucky enough to get off of the recently renamed _Shadow Killer_ before the jump into the system.

_Lucky bastard. He knew this was going to happen._

The rest of the Ghost Wolves and the majority of the _Nirvana_'s Dread and Vanguard pilots were stuck with the damaged cruiser until Salem and Hibiki cleared everything up. Until then, they followed Scyle's advice about fixing up all the ships. The Commander figured he'd use the E-Human tech as a peace offering for the Alliance Fleet. Dropships, starfighters and extra Vanguards were going to be a necessity in the time to come.

"Hey, Ms. Gisborn, how are your buddies holding up, by the way?" Crispy asked.

Meia was on top of the dropship with an E-Human, piecing the armor back together. Judging by how she looked, she didn't seem rested. Crispy wasn't sure if she had gotten any sleep in the past few days. E-Human medical tech was great for healing wounds, but it didn't treat fatigue. "They seem alright. They weren't exactly ecstatic to hear the _Nirvana_ left without them." Meia sounded like she was trying to fight back her weariness, flicking her hair out of her face with heavy eyelids partially obscuring her eyes.

"Being trapped on a ship with a bunch lizard people probably doesn't help," joked the E-Human beside her, evoking a laugh out of the Ghost Wolves and Dread pilot.

He didn't exactly know why, but Crispy found it easier to get along with the E-Humans than with the regular humans. Then again, the _Nirvana_ pilots saw all of them as a possible threat. Meia was among the few that had left the confines of the infirmary along with an amazingly gorgeous blonde and the red haired girl that was into Hibiki. Wondering how long it would take to get the Alliance Fleet to back down puzzled Crispy as much as his other question: how long would it be until the Earth Fleet showed up?

Standing up to get a better look at her work, Meia said, "It looks like I'm all done up here." Crispy looked down at Murdock who was still trying to piece the boarding ramp together.

_This idiot's gonna keep me here forever._

"We're just about done too," he lied.

"I'm going to check up on the others," Meia told as she climbed down. "Can you guys handle it from here?"

With a smile, Crispy responded, "No problem, honey. You do what you gotta do."

He found the way Meia's face stiffened and how she narrowed her eyes at him kind of cute. She definitely wasn't the girly type and Crispy loved the idea of a girl that could kick his ass. The only real problem he faced with her and the rest of the Mejerians was that not many of them would be interested in him, or any man for that matter. It was a problem he'd deal with if he survived Zeeron's siege.

When Meia was out of sight, Crispy let out a chuckle. "A planet full of women... Just take a moment to think about that."

The E-Human scoffed, saying, "If they're all as good looking as she is, I'd switch back to Zeeron's side in a heartbeat." Crispy chuckled because the same thought had crossed his mind earlier that day. It was too late to jump ship now. Zeeron would most likely execute any of them personally if they went back to him.

Murdock flipped the protective goggles up onto his forehead as he finished his work. "The Captain's definitely got a thing for her. You should have seen the way he babied her back in the med lab."

Crispy shook his head as he adjusted his glasses. "Taking advantage of a girl while she sleeps? I thought the Captain was a better man than that."

"Didn't you do the same thing back on Mars?"

"That was different. That girl had planned on putting out before the ten shots of tequila put her out."

"Bull."


	10. Twisted Mirage

There was grass, lots of grass. Every few miles there'd be one tree or so, but for the most part, there were only plain hills of healthy green grass. That was how Meia knew she was in a dream and it was how she knew what this dream would be about. Every dream about her mother was the same.

There was a tall hill with a short haired woman standing all the way on the top of it, looking off into the distance. She wore a white dress, one Meia wouldn't be caught dead in, but one she always found so beautiful. She also wore a wide brimmed hat with a light pink bow on it. The breeze was light but enough to make the elegant white dress flow gently in the Spring breeze.

Meia hated this dream because to her it felt like a nightmare. She was glad to see her mother again and her forever visible smile spread across her lips the way she had been in real life, but the dream made the Dread pilot extremely forlorn. She knew she would never get the chance to apologize to her mother for everything she said and did in real life, but for some reason, she was denied that chance even in her dreams. Meia hated herself for letting down the one person that cared for her back then and what was worse was that her mother blamed herself for the young Dread pilot's own sadness. Even though she knew how the dream would end, Meia jogged up the hill. Some unknown force always made her run up to that hilltop, filling Meia with the hope that she would eventually stand alongside her mother. She knew the dream like the back of her hand and expected her mother to begin disappearing into the distance any second.

When Meia hit the halfway mark up the hill, she realized something was off. Her mother was still atop the hill, looking into the distance. She still hadn't noticed Meia's approach, she wasn't disappearing, and the usual blue sky was morphing into a blood red as if the sun was setting. Perhaps, the sun was setting on these dreadful dreams of hers. Hopeful that the dreams were finally coming to an end, Meia quickened her pace to the hill top. Joy began to fill her as the gap between she and her mother closed, the relatively young woman's features becoming clearer. Even though she wasn't really there, Meia had hoped for the day she would at least hold her dream mother again and then apologize for everything she said, even if the real one would never hear it.

Only a few meters away, Meia slowed her pace and walked up to her fahma. The joy was accompanied by nervousness and hesitation as she observed the woman in the white dress. "Mom…" she softly spoke.

The smile on Meia's mother's face grew wider and the woman turned to her. "Meia," she said. A bouquet of flowers was held in the woman's hands, her slender fingers gently holding the bouquet to her breast. "Look... It's what your ohma and I have been working on for so long... our gift to you." She held out her hand and motioned for Meia to look where she had been. Meia followed the gesture, expecting rows of flowers and symbols of life and prosperity, maybe even the crew of the _Nirvana_ hanging around as if nothing was wrong with the world. What was in front of Meia, however, was the exact opposite.

Columns of black smoke rose up from Halo City as fires burned all over the metropolis. Explosions tore through buildings and tracers from AA/S guns lined the horizon. An army of millions marched across the plains with Vanguards and tanks, firing into the city and allied forces that desperately fought to hold the line.

"No," Meia muttered, not knowing who she was saying "no" to.

Hundreds of small attack crafts soared overhead, dropping ordinance all over the once beautiful capitol of Mejere. Building after building collapsed under detonations and shells.

"No."

A loud boom echoed over the land and a row of buildings exploded apart from a single shell. Meia looked to where the shot came from and saw the largest ground vehicle she'd ever seen.

The turtle-like machine slowly crawled towards the city, wielding nearly as many cannons as a full-sized Earth cruiser. Its shots were just as powerful too as they brought down more and more buildings.

"No!"

A slug smashed through the Nova Building nearly at its midsection. The mass of steel and glass buckled, then toppled downwards. The avalanche of architecture crashed down and crushed buildings around it, covering the city with more dust and smoke. The sight was almost as if the whole city was imploding.

"You see Meia. It's what we left just for you. This is the future we wanted to leave behind." Meia looked to her mother in horror of what she was seeing, unable to comprehend what the woman was saying. Her mother, however, wasn't beside her anymore. A creature dressed completely in black armor towered over Meia in her mother's stead. His black cape blew in the wind the same way her mother's dress had. The dark scaled reptilian took a step towards her, baring his sharp teeth in a satisfied grin as she stumbled onto her back. His eyes crawled all over her body and he wore an expression that a carnivore might have after spotting something to prey on.

"Your friends should be along just shortly, Meia." The deep gravelly voice of the E-Human sent shivers through Meia's body as he approached her. When a light illuminated the area around them, Meia looked up to the sky.

A meteor was plummeting from the stars towards the capitol below, leaving a large plume of dark smoke in its wake. When the object broke the light cover of sunbathed clouds, she recognized what the object really was. The _Nirvana_ was falling apart as it descended towards the city, portions of its hull raining down on the people below.

"Why? Stop it! Please!" The starboard arm tore off and disintegrated apart beside the main body of the starship. The _Nirvana_ was getting closer to the city as the E-Human came closer to her.

"There's no stopping this, Meia," he said, now standing over her once more. "Did you think we were incapable of retaliation?"

The magnificent white vessel Meia served aboard for a year erupted into an enormous ball of plasma and flame as it impacted within the city. Tears were already running down her face as she watched the annihilation of Halo City and everyone she loved. More Alliance starships burned through the atmosphere and impacted the plains and the city in the hundreds. Clouds of smoke darkened the sky along with the thousands of E-Human starships that swarmed in over the horizon like a horde of locust. The E-Human laid himself atop Meia and turned her away from the battle by her chin. He stroked her cheek as he said, "There's no stopping me, Meia. So just let this happen." His other hand slowly moved from her waist to her stomach before descending downward and downward until…

* * *

Meia woke up screaming louder than her voice had ever gotten before. She screamed almost to the point that it burned. She could still feel the E-Human's claws against her flesh, caressing her in places she would never allow. The feeling of the sweat soaked covers over her skin disturbed her enough that she had to shove them away. She threw herself off of the bed in the process of escaping the sheets. Still screaming and sobbing at the same time, she scurried away from the bed and slammed against the far wall only to drop to the floor. Her teary eyes searched the room for the monster while she fought just to breathe. Meia's heavy breaths were like growls as her chest heaved in an out with her hand clutching the collar of her shirt. Tears rolled from her eyes like never before and her body trembled as her mind tried to discern if she were still in the dream or not. Pressed up against the wall like a cornered animal, Meia cried out in terror as every moment of the dream played back in her mind, no matter how hard she fought it.

_Mom why? Why?_

Two hours would pass before Meia mustered up the strength to get off the ground and get dressed. She felt nothing but misery sitting in the corner the way she was. She felt pathetic. Without her vest or her mother's facial jewelry, she headed for the door, anxious to get outside more than ever. As soon as she got out of her room, she decided to get as far away from it as she could. First, she thought of the Environment Room, a place filled with greenery to replace the image of burning buildings from her mind. Then she thought of the cafeteria, but decided it'd be as dark as her room this time of day. The core room seemed like the most logical choice, as always. The Paksis Pragma was something she was always glad to see and she was sure it would be glad to see her. Considering it was still healing, it probably needed human contact just as much as she did.

The darkened halls of the _Nirvana_ kept Meia on edge as she traversed the silent ex-pirate ship. Even though it was only a nightmare, she couldn't help but watch the shadows and expect that E-Human to attack again. Frightened to the extent that her body still quaked, Meia decided she should stick to the shadows. She didn't want anyone to see her in this condition, not when a battle lingered not so near into the future.

Most of the pilots looked up to Squadron Leader Gisborn for the sole fact she never wavered before, during or after a battle. Moral was already fragile at this point, Hibiki's presentation to the Alliance Council made sure of that. When it was over, the Alliance spent the next week preparing everything in its arsenal for what was to come. Maybe, it was the lack of sleep in that time that brought on the nightmare. If spending so much time thinking about war had this effect on everyone, she wondered how the Ghost Wolves were able to sleep soundly considering no one else was wandering the ship like a traumatized lost child. She was glad that her room was sound proofed or else everyone on the ship would have heard her screams. Her throat was still sore from the loud shrieks.

A noise suddenly caught Meia's attention. It was far off, but originating from the same level of the ship as she was. It almost sounded like distant banging. Getting further down the hall, she noticed it was two separate noises. While one sounded like a loud crack, the other was a lower toned thrumming noise.

_Is that gunfire?_

She knew she was getting closer to Barnette's shooting range, a place only the Security Chief and Jura would be found. Even though she knew who she'd find there, Meia still felt wary. Turning into the hallway, Meia saw the open doorway that led into the shooting range. The shooting had stopped, now replaced with two voices. One was male and the other was female, intriguing Meia enough to peek into the room.

"I know how to shoot a gun! Stop telling me what to do!" snapped Barnette as she reloaded her pistol.

"I can see that, and you're very good at it. But, I'm just giving you a tip. Trust me, you'll acquire targets quicker that way," replied Marcus, holding an E-Human PR-20 out to the annoyed young woman. "Here, try it with this."

Barnette had a scowl on her face as she looked from the man to the weapon. "Bullshit," she muttered as she snatched the gun from his hand. When she took aim with the Plasma Repeater, the computer took note of the action and began to initiate the target practice program.

"Put your feet a little more apart," Marcus suggested.

"Oh shut up! I was about to do that!" Yellow discs of light shot back and forth as Barnette attempted to shoot them down. Even with all the training she had with all those vintage firearms of hers, Barnette had never actually hit every target on the expert sequence. Whatever the Ghost Wolf told her must have been working because she was hitting targets faster than before. A smirk was pasted on Marcus' face as he watched the Security Chief get a perfect score on the expert course.

Walking away from the shooting range, Meia felt better, at least better than she had felt a minute ago. Even so, going back to bed was still out of the question. Meia was forced to continue wandering through the innards of the ship, forced to keep searching for something to take her mind off of the imminent future. More empty halls and vacant areas welcomed Meia in her lonely tour of the only home she had left.

Only a year spent on the white starship and Meia felt more at home there than any place she'd ever been, yet the Squadron Leader also knew her home was going to be one of the Earth Fleet's prime targets. Now plaguing her thoughts was the notion that her home was going to be gone before the month was over, only a year after it was created. With that, the anxiety gradually crept back into her thoughts.

_Damn! Damn! Damn!_

Meia quickened her steps as she tried blinking away the nightmarish thoughts. Halo City was burning again, E-Human troops marched across the once magnificent plains bordering the metropolis, the E-Human Supreme Commander approached her once more. Soon, her mouth felt dry and nausea set in. In need of a drink, any drink, she hurried around the corner and made her way down to the cafeteria. Catching sight of the double-set doors to her destination, she broke into a jog. The air was getting hotter and sweat was starting to trickle down her forehead. Nearly in a full sprint, Meia exploded into the cafeteria, stopping dead in her tracks as soon as she registered that she was no longer alone.

The spacious room was dark like the rest of the ship. The only source of low light was the bluish glow of Mejere's atmosphere. The far wall of the cafeteria was lined with enormous windows providing a great view of whatever was outside, Mejere in this case. Against the light being reflected off of the planet was a silhouette of a man. Standing arms crossed, the man had slightly turned to see who just entered the room. Just from the sound of his voice, Meia could tell that Salem was concerned about her.

"Meia? Are you alright?"

_Shit! I thought no one would recognize me without my usual gear._

It would have been a little understandable if someone who knew Meia well, how she looked and acted, had figured out it was her in the dull light, but this was a stranger. Salem and his people had been around for a few weeks, but he was the one Ghost Wolf she rarely came into contact with.

_Then again, I knew who he was and I can't even see his face._

Salem's form was completely black against Mejere's radiance, but Meia was absolutely sure it was him. She pictured his face with a look on concern displayed on it, still staring at the pilot waiting for her to say something. Remembering why she came into the room in the first place, she ignored the Ghost Wolf's question and walked over to the fountain of drinks by the serving line. Salem must have sensed something was off because his footsteps echoed behind the young woman. Fumbling for a cup, Meia finally got a hold of one and pushed it under one of the automated faucets without bothering to check what she was pouring herself. The cold beverage filled the cup and stopped on its own. That allowed time for Meia to close her eyes and think about what she would tell Salem.

No one could know about the terrifying vision she saw or that she screamed upon waking from it. As far as everyone else was concerned, Meia had no weakness. Drinking up whatever cherry-flavored beverage she poured herself, Meia hastily tossed the cup into the garbage and turned to face Salem. Nobody was behind her. Salem was still standing where he was when she walked into the room, starring out at the stars.

_What the hell? Whose footsteps did I hear? I must be going insane._

Meia rubbed her eyes in irritation, knowing her mind was playing tricks on her. If she was losing it, then forcing herself to stay awake mustn't be doing her any good. The thought of walking out without a word crossed the Dread pilot's mind. But, she wouldn't let herself do that, not at this time. She'd already learned her lesson about trusting allies and alienating people and she had no intention of reverting back to her old self.

"I'm fine," she finally told Salem. "Thanks for asking." Salem didn't move or say anything back; he just watched the blue and green planet in front of him like he was in a trance. "Enjoying the view?" Meia asked, walking up beside him.

"Oh yeah," he responded with enthusiasm. "That planet is the first planet I've set foot on in years."

Meia hadn't been on Mejere for a few years now, too. After joining with Captain Magno, she left the dirt behind. In the time she was gone, everything her mother researched was applied to much of Mejere's surface. In such short time, that soulless dirt that covered most of the surface was replaced with life. The idea of living on the grass her mother was responsible for brought on guilt. That guilt made her feel unworthy of the deceased woman's final gift.

"Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it?"

"I used to see all these pictures of what Earth looked like centuries ago. Now… it's like I'm looking at the actual thing." The solemn tone of the solder's voice surprised Meia. The man was painted as a legendary soldier of a legendary unit: no relent, no fear, no equal. Every encounter Meia had with the Captain, however, painted a different picture of him. He seemed more educated than the average soldier in how he spoke and more humble. Mejerian Guardswomen and Taraakian soldiers were always wound up and acted emotionless, more like machines than actual human beings. Maybe it was the times in which they were raised. Mejerian and Taraakian society was focused on honor and appearances, relying on what the crowd thought instead of the individual. Captain Citadel didn't care what anyone thought of him, if they thought he was a fearless leader that could kill anyone in a heartbeat or a nice guy that anyone could easily approach. Salem's only concerns were getting the job done and taking care of the people around him, a quality Meia shared with the man that had been in a freezer for over 100 years.

"Are you thinking about sticking around here when this is all over?"

"Maybe," Salem sighed. "First I'd have to go back to Earth."

"Why?"

"I'm still a soldier of Earth and apparently I still have work to do there. I have to make sure everything's alright back home before I can leave it behind."

"And then what?"

With a minor hesitation, Salem simply said, "I don't know."

"Hmmm."

Meia wouldn't have pegged Salem as an indecisive kind of person, but as it would seem, she was wrong about him again. She wondered if the Ghost Wolf would even know what to do with himself if he didn't have anything left to fight. Hell, Meia had the same problem; she rarely did anything unrelated to her duty as Squadron Leader. It worried the others so much that Magno would order Meia to spend a day in the ship's spa just to keep her away from her Dread.

"So, what are you doing up at this time?"

Meia's jaw tightened as she thought up a lie. Of course she couldn't tell him the truth if she wasn't even comfortable telling someone she knew better, but she didn't care for the act of lying either. "I couldn't sleep," she said. "I feel like I should be out on patrol or something." At least that last part was true. The E-Humans weren't going to catch her off guard, not now, not ever.

"I know what you mean," Salem responded. He turned away from Mejere to look at Meia directly. "I told Grand Ma and Grand Pa I'd oversee defensive operations on the ground, but the urge to be up here when the fighting starts keeps coming back to me. It'll be days or so before the lizards start sending troops planetside. I don't like the idea of watching a fight from far away with nothing to do about it."

"Neither do I." Meia didn't want that dream to become a premonition. But, the turtle-like machine kept jumping back into her mind. Searching her memories, she didn't recall seeing anything about walking battleships in the files Hibiki brought back. It was the kind of thing you wouldn't exactly forget.

_Would Salem even know about it if it were real? Could he be hiding it?_

The Ghost Wolf was glancing out the window again. As best as Meia could tell, he didn't seem like he was hiding anything. Hibiki trusted him well enough, and Hibiki wasn't one to take on new friends very easily.

"Meia, I need you to do something for me," Salem told, looking back at the sleep deprived girl.

Meia had heard plenty of women who thought they were going to die say the same thing. Usually they wanted her to give a loved one a message they felt they weren't ever going to give in person, and a few of those times they were right. She never understood why people approached her for such things. Considering how coldly she related to people in the past, it never ceased to surprise her that people felt comfortable with the Squadron Leader taking final requests. Meia, though, had no clue what the Ghost Wolf would want from her or why. He didn't have any loved ones left alive except for his squad and she doubted they could have gotten close to anyone in the relatively short time they had been awake in this time period. Whatever it was, she made the choice to go along with it like she had before.

"Sure. What do you need?" the Dread pilot asked.

Salem stepped away from the view to take a chair from the table. Setting the chair down, he sat across from Meia. Taking his cue, she leaned up against the table opposite of him. With the light hitting half of his face now, Meia could make out his features effortlessly.

"I'm not a super soldier. I'm no godlike being," Salem said softly. "I know Grand Ma, Grand Pa, Scyle, Hibiki, a good portion of the Alliance Fleet and even the Supreme Commander of Earth all think that me and my team are like a five-man army, that we can change the tides of battles on our own..." Meia heard the way the leaders of Taraak and Mejere praised him on the news the other day. Captain Citadel wasn't lying or being egotistical because the Vandread pilots received the same treatment. "… But, I know that every successful mission we'd been on, every accomplished task and completed operation, had been so because we had people behind us. An army can't win without an Air Force to cover them. Air Force can't attack without a Navy to deploy from. A Navy can't hold out without an army to gain land for them. Every facet of the Alliance relies on one another to go on; I don't know if you knew that already…"

The truth was, Meia never really thought of that. Battles in that time were won in the stars with warships and starfighters. An entire war on the surface of a planet seemed outdated to her, but now she knew how foolish she was for thinking so. That being the case, Meia proceeded to nod her head in agreement and listen.

"I can do what I can on Mejere, but the battleground out here, above those clouds, is out of my hands. Fortunately for me, there are four more people and a robot that have the same hero problem as me and my guys, and last time I checked, they were damn good pilots." Blushing from the soldier's flattery, Meia was glad that the room was still darkened. "I need you hold the line up here as long as you can, Meia." The illuminated half of Salem's face wore the most intense expression, one that scared Meia because of what it revealed. It showed a man who knew he was going to die. "No matter what, you keep the line in check until the very end. If you do that, I promise you I won't let those scaly bastards take the planet out from under me."

A promise neither could keep, something about that comforted Meia. Knowing she wasn't the only one doubting the Alliance's chances of survival somehow made her feel better. But, she didn't need a promise to tell her what she had already planned on doing. She wasn't going to buckle under whatever Zeeron had to throw at her, even if it were some nightmarish super weapon. With her mind already made up, she leaned forward and held out a hand.

Salem reached out, expecting Meia to shake his hand. He must have underestimated Meia's strength because she easily yanked him up from his chair, causing a look of surprise to appear on his face. Meia, however, overestimated how heavy he was and pulled him hard enough to have him nearly stumble on top of her. Their faces in that instant were nearly inches apart from each other, a position in which Meia hadn't intended on them being. Her hands were placed on his chest while his were on her waist. Under the layers of clothing, Meia could feel how hard the soldier's heart was beating. It occurred to her that she hadn't been this close to anyone nearly as long as she hadn't been on the surface of Mejere. Despite that, she felt unusually comfortable this close to Salem. Of course, as soon as she realized that, fear kicked in. Lightly pushing back from the man and clearing her throat, but not completely taking her hands off of his chest, Meia began talking just to forget what had happened.

"If you want to protect Mejere right, you're going to have to listen to what I have to tell you." Salem, with a hint of embarrassment evident in his movements as well, nodded and stepped back from Meia. The two let go of each other and stood silently for a moment. "Come on, we're going to need to tell the Captain too," Meia said just to break the tension.

"Alright then. After you," Salem motioned for her to lead the way. Meia hastily stepped ahead just to make sure he didn't see her reddened face as they departed from the cafeteria.

* * *

Silence, a spook's best friend. It was a phrase beaten into every one of Zeeron's Special Forces operatives. Now that weeks of preparation and near chaos had died down to a point in which Commander Scyle could finally hear himself think, the ex-Spec Op finally appreciated the saying more than he ever thought he would. Actually, now that he had time to think, Scyle realized how big the bridges were on E-Human cruisers. He had sent away many of the crew and had temporary replacements holding the high priority stations while the regular operators got their rest. With only six people in the room, the bridge seemed massive. Whether anyone knew it or not, bridge hands usually spent as much time awake as a ship's commanding officer did. The ten people that had loyally and courageously served under him in this time earned every ounce of the Commander's respect.

_Forever faithful._

Scyle looked down at his light armor, grimacing at the recently repainted white coating. While starships were easy to adjust for Identification Friend or Foe systems, individual people were not. The Alliance Council had determined it would be easiest to distinguish Ashes of Humanity Earthborns from Zeeron's forces if they had a unique set of paint. Easy-for-snipers-to-spot-white was the designated color. While Scyle had agreed without a word, he wished his men could use a different color. The majority of Zeeron's forces were colored with reds, dark blues and black. A brownish kind of color or something dark, but not ridiculously easy to pick out at a distance would have been more to Scyle's tastes. But he and his men were stuck with white. Most of Scyle's warriors resorted to painting wide diagonal slashes across their breast plates, backs and pauldrons. A few had even adopted white war paint for their faces and frills. Scyle cursed himself for not picking one of those blatantly obvious choices instead of painting his entire suit of armor white.

_Oh well. Maybe the loyalists will see me and think, "Hey, that guy's got some balls. Let's give up and go home."_

Grumbling with annoyance, he got up from his seat and looked outside. Thousands of starships and orbital cannons sat above the two planets. Lined up in battle ready formations, the fleet looked more menacing than it had when Scyle had jumped into the system. Their sight was still nothing compared to the sight of the Earth Fleet, no matter how many ships were present at the moment.

People from worlds across the galaxy may have been aligned to fight against a single foe, but Earth and its people had the advantage of numbers and the experience of fighting to survive their whole lives. They were bigger and physically superior to the Alliance Fleet's "normal" humans, a fact that Scyle himself didn't believe until he met the Ghost Wolves. Sure, Salem's team was capable of taking on evolved humans with no problem, but that was because they had perfected their specific trade. The people of the Alliance Fleet were spooked just looking at either the E-Humans or the Ghost Wolves. How they would react to the hostile dispositions of snarling E-Human warriors was anybody's guess, but Scyle knew that home field advantage was the only thing going for the ground forces on Mejere and Taraak and he knew that everyone else knew that too. There was one thing the Commander was sure of, something that couldn't be disputed: as soon as the ground forces catch sight of the _Nirvana_ and the Ghost Wolves in action, low moral wouldn't be a factor any longer… that was the hope anyway.

Stepping away from the view, Scyle glanced back at the others in the room. One was leaning against a chair as he observed the data on his screen. Another had his feet up on the console he was seated at. Everyone else was in a similar rested state. Scyle would have busted their balls about their attitudes were it not for the fact that they were still obviously alert and attending to their duties. While none of them looked it, Scyle knew that they were all in dire need of sleep. Generally, everyone on active duty in the Alliance was in such shape.

"Chief!" he called out to the man with his feet up.

The man suddenly dropped his feet down and straightened up. "Yes, sir?"

"Take a walk. You've been staring at that screen too long."

"Should I get someone to take my place, sir?"

"Don't worry about it, Chief. I'll keep an eye on it." The man nodded and left after a salute.

_I can't stay in this room forever either. I might become nocturnal._

Scyle sat down in the Chief Petty Officer's seat and kicked his feet up. The enhanced telescopic recording of the Earth Fleet sat on the bottom right corner of the computer screen. Using his heel, Scyle made the view take up the whole screen so he could see it better. He found it funny that the best way the Alliance could guess the Earth Fleet was coming was to just stare at it through a digitally enhanced lens. It was a primitive, but sure fire way to tell when the fleet was going to jump. Scyle only glanced at the image for a moment before shutting his eyes. The computer would make a noise if anything changes dramatically, so Scyle decided to get a mild rest.

About a minute later, a bridge hand across the room said, "Sir, we have reports of movement coming from the Earth Fleet."

"Another formation shift, most likely," Scyle grumbled as he opened his eyes. Glancing at the screen again, he saw that the fleet was still where it was. The fleet was shifting as he had predicted, but in an unusual way. Battle groups were distancing themselves from one another, making it clearer who was part of what sub-fleet. While that information didn't bring up any red flags in Scyle's head, he proceeded to enhance the image more to get a closer look at said groups. "Oh shit!"

Scyle, like all E-Humans, could tell when a ship was about to use ABH before the drivers were even initiated. The ships were required to place themselves at a minimum safe distance of a few hundred thousand meters from adjacent ships, in case there was a catastrophic malfunction with the ABH drive. All the ships were moving themselves apart in such a manner, causing the fleet to spread itself out more than it was before. "Relay this image throughout the fleet! These ships are getting ready to jump!" Scyle shouted at the person substituting at the communications station. The Commander jumped up from his seat and brought up an even larger recording above the holo-table. Now, ABH ruptures were eminent around the fleet in the enlarged image. Pressing the open channel communication icon, Scyle communicated, "_Shadow Killer_ to all active units, prepare battle stations!" He repeated the command as he watched battle group after battle group disappear off the screen. Pressing another icon, Scyle sent a message through the ship's PA system. "All hands to battle stations, I repeat, all hands to battle stations!" _Sui Generis_ was one of the last ships to disappear before all Scyle could see was stars.

"So, this is it," he muttered after shutting off the screen. _Shadow Killer_ still had a massive hole through the bow, the Paksis was still recovering and there were still some Chaos', Vanguards and Hydoras that needed fixing. Ground forces remained in the process of setting themselves up on both worlds while the fleet hadn't gone through any drills or simulations to get a good idea on what they were supposed to do. Ready or not, the Earth Fleet was now en route to the Mejere/Taraak system with nearly ten thousand warships to match up against a hastily put together fleet. Scyle's better judgment told him that this battle was already over while something deep down told him everything was going to work out. In about a day, he would find out which instinct was right because that was all the time needed to get from where the Earth Fleet had been to the very doorstep at which the Alliance Fleet stood guard. Scyle never underestimated the gravity of the situation, but that didn't stop his blood from nearly boiling with anticipation.

"Lieutenant Commander Frost?"

Scyle asked over a more private comm. "Yes, Commander?"

"You have command of this ship until I return. I'm heading over to the _Nirvana_."

"Acknowledged, sir."

Scyle nodded for the communications operator to send that same message to the crews in the hangar before walking out of the room. E-Humans were readying their armor and everyone on board was hurrying to their designated positions. "One day gentlemen!" he shouted as every warrior ran to and fro. "This is it! If there's a pretty little Mejerian you have your eye on, you better tell her how you feel now because our life expectancies may not extend past tomorrow!"


	11. The Last Day

The dark hallway lit up as strobes of plasma streaked back and forth between the E-Humans and the Melanic Marines. The air was heated and dense with the stench of sweat and scalded bodies. With every flash of light Jenna could make out more and more shrouded beasts pushing forward through the women's suppressing fire. The E-Humans may have been genetically similar to the people of Melanis, but they were far from average beings. Despite heavy losses, the warriors kept pushing for the bridge of the E-Human cruiser, anxious to take back what was once their own. That didn't scare Jenna though; in fact she saw it as a good thing.

_Keep coming. I want to kill all of you fuckers right here, right now!_

She didn't flinch when plasma seared past her face or when it splashed against the wall beside her. Her one desire in the midst of combat was to kill every E-Human in the universe. She was pushing forward through the plasma fire, stepping over bodies and stopping only to pick up a replacement for her melted gun. She'd gone through four plasma weapons since the uprising began and she wasn't slowing down. Not a second went by that she didn't have her finger holding down the trigger to the E-Human rifle. She would use the monsters' own weapons against them and she'd make them pay for everything.

Melanis, her home, the place she swore to protect when she had enlisted in the Melanis Marine Corps was gone. She saw from space what happens to the worlds of those that oppose the people of Earth, she saw them burn Melanis. "I should have burned with it," she had told herself. Jenna's squad was fighting north of the planet's capitol when a plasmite mortar brought a building down on top of them. Instead of waking up under a pile of rubble, she was in a holding cell sealed off with energy and was forced to watch live recordings of the planet being purged of all life. Floating around the planet as it was covered in flames were the carcasses of the Melanic Defensive Fleet. Hundreds of starships slowly tumbled towards the planet as its gravity pulled the soulless vessels into the newly renovated hell waiting below. The hatred had been brewing since then. When the first outbreaks of prisoner uprisings began, Jenna was already on the frontlines of the new war. Melanis was gone, so they all sure as hell weren't fighting for that. Technically, there wasn't a unified reason for fighting. Jenna just knew she didn't want to be a prisoner of war and could only think about revenge. She hadn't shed a single tear for her lost loved ones, and she wouldn't, not until she killed every E-Human in this fleet.

Jenna dropped another rifle and kneeled down to pick up another. The thought of conserving weapons and ammo didn't occur to her at all. She just wanted to keep shooting until there was nothing left to shoot. She brought the "new" weapon up to her shoulder and aimed high at the first target she spotted in the distant shadows. The blasts of plasma saw that much of the warrior's upper torso no longer existed after she held a five second burst. She released the trigger only for a moment before unleashing another deadly burst onto another shadow. Another smoldering corpse was added to the buildup of bodies in the narrow halls of the E-Human ship, another step closer to Jenna's ultimate goal.

"Damn, we have reports of movement around the outer barricades. Audrey!" A woman with short blonde hair was looking her way as Jenna reloaded her rifle. Jenna didn't know who the woman was, but she knew she must have been in the service because she immediately took command of the remnant military types and civilians on the ship when the uprising began. She'd been leading the tidal wave of vengeance on that particular ship and, in Jenna's eyes, was doing a good job so far. Jenna got to kill plenty of E-Humans, so she was happy. "Corporal!" the Sergeant called out to Jenna. "Corporal, you and you three…" the Sergeant spoke to the women closest to Jenna. "… are going to push down this hall. The lizards are trying to move around us and might try to make their own entryway because they sure as hell aren't getting through here." A younger girl in her late teens stumbled to the Sergeant's side seeming on the verge of collapse. "Audrey, right?"

"Y…yeah?" the girl answered.

"You're the one who got the doors open before, right?"

"Yeah." Audrey seemed petrified beyond all belief. Her movements were like that of a squirrel's as her head jolted from side as if she were expecting an E-Human to be waiting somewhere in the shadows. Jenna felt bad for the poor girl.

"Good, go back to the bridge and see if you can start sealing of sections of the ship around us. Try to funnel the lizards down this hall." A grenade exploded just on the other end of the barricade, causing Audrey to drop down and cower. "Hey!" The Sergeant pulled the terrified civilian off of her hands and knees. "You have to do this! Get those doors closed and you won't have to see those things again!" Audrey nodded and disappeared behind the group of women holding the only direct route to the bridge of the E-Human cruiser. "Jenna!" The Sergeant was looking the Marine's way. "You have to get going! Go!"

"You want more dead lizards, you got it!" Jenna enthusiastically replied, making a move for the hallway in question. A hand on the Corporal's shoulder halted her movements and Jenna looked to the Sergeant to see why she stopped her.

"Jenna, take it easy. We need as many people as we can keep alive to hold this ship. The resistance stands as long as one ship stays in our hands." The Sergeant seemed distraught and the way she looked at Jenna made her uneasy.

_Is she worried about me?_

Annoyed at the prospect that the others were afraid Jenna might hurt herself, the Corporal shrugged the woman's hand off of her shoulder, snapping, "I got it! Just let me do my job!" Not bothering to check on the women that were ordered to follow, Jenna was heading down another hall with her plasma weapon up, ready to take on more E-Humans. She kept low, allowing for those staying behind to fire over her team's heads. Sticking to the makeshift barricades of crates and dead E-Humans, Jenna found her way to her new post.

Unlike the main hall, this one was still brightly lit without a trace of the E-Human presence the Sergeant had spoke of. Her hazel eyes twitched from doorway to doorway to make sure the enemy wasn't taking cover. But a quick observation only revealed that this particular hallway was practically untouched by the uprising.

_They're not coming this way._

Jenna looked to her team and ordered them to stay put with a raised palm.

"Wait, where are you going?" asked the one civilian of the group.

Ignoring the question, Jenna was already heading over to the next hallway, expecting hard contact. The intersection she wandered into had its lights shot out, giving her the safety of darkness to peek around the corner. Eight warriors, moving in groups of four, were heading in her direction. They were close, much closer than she had anticipated, giving her but a few seconds to figure out the best course of action. She grabbed the only grenade she had and primed it.

The E-Humans were close enough to hear the telltale beeping, causing one of them to blurt out, "Shit!" As another yelled for the other soldiers to run, Jenna could hear the lizards turning back in a hurry. Now that she had the opportunity, Jenna pressed on with the attack.

Jenna rounded the corner to throw the grenade, only to slam face first into the chest of a very large evolved human. The grenade left Jenna's hand and went over the E-Human's shoulder, but she had no clue how far it went. She wasn't given any time to think as the beast roughly tackled her. The Marine was winded when the creature landed on top of her, but that didn't stop her from retaliating. She weakly punched at the raptor-like snout of the E-Human, but it didn't seem to have any effect. As far as Jenna could tell, the thing wasn't even concerned about fighting, but about avoiding the incoming blast.

The grenade exploded and sent its plasma everywhere around the struggling soldiers. Jenna's feet and shins felt like they were on fire, but she couldn't tell if the plasma actually hit her. She knew in the back of her mind that if she was hit, the nerve endings in her legs would be incinerated before they could relay the feeling of being melted. That didn't stop her from panicking just a little bit. The hall was lit up just enough for Jenna to see the carnivorous face of the E-Human on top of her, giving her another reason to be worried. As soon as the E-Human realized it wasn't injured, it began to snarl. The hallway went dark again before the first fist crashed into Jenna's face. There was no time to react and stop the second punch, but Jenna wasn't going to call quits. She raised her arm to stop the next punch, but the warrior's strength was enough to get through the defense, resulting in a glancing blow. Jenna struck out with her free hand repeatedly and aimed for the tip of the E-Human's snout. Amidst the struggle, the E-Human lashed out with his claws, raking four cuts across the side of Jenna's face. The warmth of blood spread across her face and trickled into her eye. Slightly blinded, Jenna kept up with her blows, trying hard to roll the reptilian to get on top. She knew his squad was on their way to help their friend, so Jenna was thinking hard about what she could do to alleviate that problem while trying not to get beaten to death by a lizard man.

The fight dragged on for another two seconds before three strobes of plasma hit the E-Human from the side. He barely made a noise before slumping over beside Jenna with trails of smoke rising from his melted abdomen. Once again, the uncomfortable heat on her stomach made her check to make sure she wasn't splashed by the shots. Jenna's team fired down the hall at the advancing E-Humans while Jenna quickly crawled out of the way. The civilian pulled Jenna to her feet and put a plasma pistol in her hands.

"I think you're supposed to get them before they get close enough to bite your face off," she said. The civilian seemed queasy judging by the way she was looking at the wounds on Jenna's face.

_God I hope it doesn't look too bad._

Checking the pistol, Jenna moved to help with the defense. She wiped the blood out of her right eye and nearly cried out. The entire side of her face was tender from the claw marks and now stung as if the E-Human's claws were still being dragged across her wounds. Ignoring the throbbing pain, she leaned around the corner and fired at the first warrior she saw, hitting its knee and chest with two trigger taps. The civilian stuck her head out for just a second when a burst of plasma struck her in the face. By the time she hit the floor, nearly a third of her head had melted away into an unrecognizable form. Jenna could only imagine the death was painless, albeit not easy to look at. Then again, she never figured death as something easy to look at.

The whole team shooting from the same corner was making it easier for the E-Humans to figure out where they had to direct their fire. Jenna steered clear of the revolting sight of the dead woman and sprung across the intersection to take cover opposite of her team, staying low and using the darkness for cover once more.

"Kick that gun over here!" she called out to her two remaining teammates. One of them slid the dead woman's weapon across the ground right into Jenna's hands. Without bothering to check the weapon, she leaned out and fired on two warriors further behind the rest of the E-Human squad. She pulled back in time to narrowly dodge the sudden hail of plasma thrown her way.

"Jenna!" one of the soldiers shouted. "They're advancing down this hall…" she pointed to the barricaded hallway they had passed before. "… we have to fall back!"

Jenna nodded and said, "Throw two 'nades. One down this hall, one down that one. Same time on three." Both women opposite of Jenna primed their grenades quickly as Jenna quietly counted. Merely talking had hurt her face and for a moment, she didn't feel like moving. However, as soon as she shouted, "Three," she sprang across the intersection while her team tossed their grenades. Just before the three reached the barricades a pair of detonations rumbled through the corridors followed by shouting and screaming.

_It's too early to call it quits now._

* * *

"No, I told you, I'm not going to wear that!" Hibiki groaned as he turned away from Dita.

"Oh come on! You said you were willing to try it out!" she pressed.

"That's because I thought…" He trailed off as he tried to remember why he agreed to wear whatever Dita made for him for the next battle, grumbling to himself when he realized he didn't have a reason. When it came to her, questions or requests that would have normally received a "no" ended up with "yes".

_Damn woman. Making me soft…_

The Vanguard hangar was filled with engineers and pilots as the special Dreads and Vanguards were prepped for combat. OJ, Crispy and Murdock were loading up the landing craft with E-Human supplies they "borrowed" from _Shadow Killer_, but Salem and Marcus were nowhere to be found. Meia was also missing from the scene, which was an oddity because she was always present when it came to her Dread's repairs and battle preparations. After a moment, Hibiki realized he was only taking a look around to avoid the current situation with Dita.

"Look…" Hibiki began. "It doesn't matter what I wear, does it? What matters is that we're together when the fight begins, right?" Dita lowered the hand-made sweatshirt as she thought about it. "Besides, I don't think the Earth Humans will care how I look when they show up."

"But I do…" Dita sounded upset when she spoke, which really got to Hibiki.

Maybe a part of her was trying to forget what was about to happen. She had said it herself that she didn't know how to act when times were rough. Hibiki supposed she only bugged him with gifts and such just to keep her mind off of the bad. He wasn't about to burst her bubbly spirit, not ever. Hibiki was about to agree to wear the ridiculously bright green sweatshirt with the white alien knitted on the front when the Vanguard pilots around the hangar suddenly jumped to their feet and snapped off salutes.

"What the hell?"

Captain Magno, Commander Scyle and the _Nirvana_'s commanding officers walked into the room, also seeming unsure as to why the men were being so formal. When Salem and Marcus stepped into view, Hibiki had a better understanding. The Taraakians on board the _Nirvana_ were still uneasy about taking orders from women, even after the battles against The Harvest and _Hallowed Soul_.They constantly asked Hibiki how he was able to get through the "ordeal". Every time, Hibiki told them it wasn't as bad as they thought since there were at least there were about fifty of them now as opposed to when it was just Hibiki, Bart and Duelo. It wasn't until the Ghost Wolves showed up that they became less combative with the Mejerians.

Salem and Marcus returned their salutes with the Ghost Wolves Captain saying, "At ease."

After the men settled back down, Buzam stepped forward. "There's been a change in plans for our Vanguard operations. Due to a dramatic update in E-Human capabilities, all Nirvana based Vanguards with the exception of Hibiki's will be operating groundside during the invasion."

Some of the Vanguard pilots began to voice their opposition to the sudden change. Hibiki heard a pilot mutter to another, "I bet we gotta babysit some stupid building for the females."

"Damn women always have to get the good details."

Captain Magno waved for them to quiet down, but they didn't exactly do so until Marcus made a sharp whistle with his fingers and yelled, "Shut up!"

Buzam finished her announcement with, "You're all now under the command of Captain Citadel until further notice." Those words calmed the Vanguard pilots down real quick.

It was clear that the commanding officers had learned about something particularly dreadful since they all looked as if they had just learned of the death of a close relative. But, what tipped Hibiki off the most was the tired look on Magno's withered face. She never really showed sadness or worry in her expressions, but Hibiki did notice that such emotions were replaced with weariness and borderline apathy. Mark of a leader, he supposed: Cut emotional ties and show that nothing could pull a reaction from oneself. She's probably who Meia learned it from, if Hibiki had to guess.

Salem stepped forward to continue the briefing while the others listened. "Gentlemen, we have somewhat confirmed reports that the E-Human landing forces may have a ground-based super weapon comparable to a full-sized cruiser. Trace data found by our Ashes of Humanity allies only give a name and vague information concerning construction materials such as tungsten, uranium and some sort of carbon fiber that I won't even try to pronounce; these either point to armor or weapons, either of which is bad. In my short time here in the future, I've learned that people seem to spare no expenses when it comes to making weapons of mass destruction, so my better judgment tells me we will be dealing with one hell of a weapon when the invasion force arrives. That being said, Grand Pa still remains unmoving in his decision not to divert forces away from Taraak to help with Mejerian ground defense. While the Mejerian Guard has light armored vehicles and fast attack crafts, they do not have anything comparable to a heavily armored tank. This means you will be the only armored unit on the ground when the shit hits the fan."

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone let the news sink in. A small force against an onslaught of well-trained E-Humans and a possible super weapon was something that didn't exactly scream "easy victory". Of course, no one had even dared to think winning the war against Earth would be.

The silence ended when Murdock and Crispy began whooping and hollering in anticipation. "I say bring 'em on! We can take 'em, right guys?" The Taraakians cheered and shouted in agreement, jumping up from their seats and raising their fists to the air. A smile crossed Salem's face as he looked to the women beside him.

Jura rolled her eyes at the scene. "Men."

"How'd you find out about this in such short time?" asked one of the engineers when the cheering died down. Hibiki recognized the suspicion in the woman's voice and was sure the others were somewhat suspicious of the last minute findings. He'd probably think the same thing were it not for the fact that only fifty Vanguards or so were being moved as a result of the news, that and Salem's subtle glance in a certain woman's direction.

_Meia?_

"Let's just say one of your own had a very good hunch," he eventually responded. Now Hibiki was curious as to what Meia might have said. A part of Hibiki figured it was an experienced leader's hunch, but something else told him "hunch" was an understatement.

_That dream last night…_

"Are we going to be alone down there?" asked a Vanguard pilot.

"No. You'll be combined with the Mejerian mechanized Echo Company…" Salem fished for something in his pocket, pulling a metal disc-like object. "A little gift from our E-Human friends," he said before tossing the device on the floor. On the surprisingly heavy object's second and final bounce, a green beam of light shot out the top of it and morphed into a projection of Halo City and the surrounding areas.

Hibiki couldn't count how many peoples' initial reactions were, "Whoa!"

The map adjusted to show a specific section of the grassy plains outside of the metropolis and highlighted the area in red. "You and Echo Company are tasked with holding the one highway that runs through the plains and straight into the city. They plan on dropping vast quantities of troops in the flattest portions of the plains just outside of our operational fields. Since Halo City's been fortified with enough AA/S to hold off an entire naval fleet, the E-Humans will have no straight forward way of attacking the city other than to advance right into us."

The simulations Hibiki had seen dozens of times played out before everyone as the Captain spoke. E-Human dropships descended from the skies in the thousands and swooped back up just as quickly after dropping off squads of warriors.

"What about orbital attacks?" asked Jura.

"The majority of the city's defenses have been grouped around key structures that Zeeron personally requested not to be harmed during the invasion."

Jura scoffed, muttering, "Great, playing hide-behind-the-civilians to win." The idea ate away at Hibiki as well. He knew fighting with everything out in the open was stupid, but banking everything on the hope that the Earth Fleet won't bomb the Nova Building or the Palace of Grand Ma didn't sit well with him either.

"Besides, orbital strikes won't be a problem if you guys do your job right," said Crispy almost as if he were already accusing the fleet of failing.

"Don't worry," told Hibiki. "Nothing's getting by me."

"Our recent adventure on _Sui Generis_ says otherwise."

Salem only gave Crispy an agitated look before allowing Scyle to continue for him. "The first Earth troops to hit the dirt are going to be Vanguards and Marines. Earth Marines do have combat experience and have gotten very good at taking fortified positions under heavy fire, so this landing force will be tough. Since they're aware that one of them if equal to two or three regular humans, they'll be more focused on taking you all down before they direct any attention towards the Mejerian Guard. You're to act defensively in this first wave because approximately one out of four Earth Human Marines will be carrying anti-tank rockets. The Ghost Wolves and Echo Company deal with the infantry and you take out the Vanguards when they're in range."

"When can we expect to be reinforced?" asked one of the Vanguard pilots.

Without pause, Salem responded. "Never." Even though he'd be fighting in space, Hibiki felt helpless. He knew he wasn't going to stop every ship from getting close to Mejere and Taraak, but now that he knew that his fellow Vanguard pilots were on their own against the E-Human ground offensive, he felt even more helpless. The nightmare then flooded back into his memory.

* * *

"Jenna, pull back! Come on!" The Sergeant pulled Jenna away from the barricades as E-Human reinforcements pushed through the embattled hallway. "Audrey, seal the damn doors behind us!"

Jenna backed up towards the bridge of the E-Human starship as she laid down suppressing fire for her retreating allies. A whole platoon of E-Humans must have boarded the ship at some point because a whole mess load of them were enacting a counterattack much past the ability of the remaining crew. The Sergeant reported that the E-Humans started cutting off ship-to-ship communications between the Melanic prisoners. Jenna may very well have lost her chance to avenge everyone she lost.

As the last of the resistance darted past Jenna, she spotted a woman limping far behind the rest. Even with the vast amount of blood pouring down her leg and soaking her clothes, the woman still had an E-Human pistol in her hand, stopping for a moment to fire a few bolts over her shoulder. Jenna squeezed off a couple of shots before running back down the hall to the woman's side.

When she got close enough, Jenna could tell that the lady was in worse shape than she had thought. Her skin was pale and her eye lids were barely open. She stumbled in Jenna's direction but didn't actually seem sure as to where she was going.

"Give me your arm!" Jenna told. She put the woman's arm around her and practically dragged her along, dropping the plasma rifle so she could pull her along quicker.

"Corporal, move it!" shouted the Sergeant, firing shots past Jenna at an E-Human that got too close to the unguarded barricades. Two more women took up positions beside the Sergeant to cover Jenna as she and the injured woman limped back to them. The clanking of armor behind Jenna told her that the E-Humans were all much closer now; the sudden bursts of light firing over her head and bolts landing around her made that fact even clearer.

Jenna and the woman were meters away from the others when a bolt struck Jenna's shoulder. For the first second, her shoulder felt cool where she felt the impact and then she felt a sensation similar to numbness. The intense burning she felt afterwards was nearly crippling. Jenna felt as if her entire arm and upper body was dipped in magma. Despite her strength, Jenna succumbed to the unimaginable pain and dropped to the floor in agony. Over her cries of pain, she heard the others rushing to her side. Someone was firing over her head while someone else grabbed her good arm and hoisted her up.

"You're okay, Jenna. You're still in one piece," said the person carrying the Marine away. Jenna felt the pain in her neck and couldn't turn to see whether or not the woman was lying. The scuffling behind her sounded as if the others were dragging the other woman with them. Getting inside of the bridge, Jenna was propped against the glowing table in the center of the room while someone sealed the door. Once the hiss of the closing doors ended, the bridge was dumped in a tense silence.

Even with the incredible amount of pain coursing throughout her body, Jenna tried to look around to see who was left. The room was tightly packed with the remains of Melanis. Whoever had a weapon had it trained on the door while everyone else was hiding in the front of the room, packing themselves as tightly together as they could. The woman tending to Jenna was speaking, but Jenna couldn't hear her in her condition.

"I need… I need a gun… Where's…" her eyelids felt heavy but she still wanted to fight… no, she needed to fight. She still had to pay back the people of Earth for what they did to her home and she wasn't going to do that by lying on her back. Jenna managed to look out the window to see the blazing surface of Melanis on the port side of the ship. "Sergeant…" She looked to her left to see where the Sergeant was, but didn't see her.

"Take it easy, Jen. This is gonna hurt like hell," said the woman in front of the Corporal.

Just when Jenna thought she couldn't be in any more pain, a stabbing sensation jolted through her shoulder. "Gah! Fu-!" She couldn't get her curses out clearly before she screamed in pain. The person in front of her had jammed some sort of E-Human device into the charred meat where Jenna's shoulder was hit. Excruciating pain quickly turned to numbness and ice and after a second, Jenna almost felt better. "What the fuck did you just do to me?" she said, shoving the woman away.

"It's some sort of healing agent. I saw them use it on their wounded and it seemed to work pretty well," the woman explained. Jenna's body still ached, but she could at least move her head painlessly. White foam covered her injured shoulder, nearly covering up all the blackened skin from the plasma burn. Still, she was pissed that the woman decided to test something out on her without prior knowledge on what to do.

_I can't believe I got hit. Damn lizards!_

"Where's the Sarge?" Jenna asked again.

"She's gone, Jen. I think you're the ranking officer now." The woman got up and moved on to another injured person without a word. Jenna was unsure of how everyone knew her name when she didn't know them, but she was also unsure of what would happen to all of them. The lady she had "saved" was on the floor with a blank expression on her face, unblinking and devoid of life. The Sergeant was dead and now the last of the resistance was cowering in a room from a hundred or so E-Human warriors.

"God damn lizards."

Jenna forced herself to get up, even though much of her body was unresponsive to her wishes. Someone called out for her to stay down, but she didn't listen. She leaned over the glowing table and looked at all the commands hovering before her on the holographic interface. Jenna had no clue as to which command would do what and she wasn't about to start hitting buttons. She looked around the room until she spotted the girl with long brown hair by the helm.

"Hey, you!" she called out, unable to remember her name at the moment. "You know anything about electronics?" The girl looked scared and surprised. "You're the one the Sarge sent to close the doors right?"

"Uhh yeah," the girl answered anxiously.

"Good, you can figure out how to work this, then." Jenna nodded for the girl to take her spot, growing impatient when the girl hesitated. "Let's go! Chop chop!" Suddenly hit with energy, the girl jumped up and ran to Jenna's side to figure out what to do. "See if you can start opening up airlocks or shutting off life support in certain sections of the ship. Hurry, because those guys outside the door aren't going to wait very long."

"Wouldn't those kinds of commands be locked for executive use only?" the girl Jenna suddenly remembered as Audrey asked. Melanic starships had such functions reserved only for the bridge and engineering sections. Hopefully, E-Human vessels were no different.

"Just look. If you can't find it…" Jenna wasn't completely sure if she wanted to pick the suicide run option, but there wasn't any other idea that she could think of. "… then open the doors." The other women in the room reacted with horror to the order.

"You want to let those things in?" several asked.

"It's either we open the doors and catch them by surprise or we wait until they use a breaching charge and kill us before we have any chance to react."

"But if we show that we're not armed, they won't attack, right?" wondered another.

"Do you think they care whether or not we're armed? Look out the God damn window, they destroyed an entire planet! Look around, do you see any of your friends and family around? Everyone you've ever known is dead! Do you think the lizards gave a fuck if they were armed or not?"

The woman backed off and was now staring at the floor in tears, finally coming to grips with the cold truth of their situation. The way everyone was avoiding eye contact with one another meant they all were just getting it, too. Jenna's face hurt again from the shouting, but that wasn't the reason why she wanted to take back what she said.

_Chris. Vivian. Kate. Mom. Dad._

The tears Jenna swore she'd hold back were starting to form in her eyes when a voice called out to her. "Uhh, Jenna? I think something's happening." Audrey was pointing to the projection of Melanis' solar system that appeared over the table.

Quickly blinking away the small buildup of water, Jenna turned to get a good look at what the teen was talking about. Her jaw dropped when she saw how many ships were orbiting around the dead planet. She had heard that the E-Humans were outnumbered, but she didn't expect the fleet to be smaller than she thought it was. Seeing the small fleet surrounded by a sea of debris and death was all anyone needed to see to know the Earth Fleet was a force unlike any other. Many of the ships were blinking red with bullhorn symbols next to them. She imagined all of those ships were in turmoil at the moment because of the uprising, but she knew that the women on the other ships couldn't be in better shape than she and the people around her were. Audrey then made it clearer that she wasn't talking about those particular vessels.

"I think the ship thinks there's something over here because it's picking up weird signals."

"What kind of signals?"

"I don't know, I can't really read this stuff, you know?" Guessing from the position of the signals, Jenna figured she could see what the computer was pointing out from the window. She limped through the tightly packed group in her way to get a better look, only to see nothing.

"Are you sure you're reading that thing right?" she asked. "I don't know if I'm reading anything right here, but best I can guess is that you should be seeing whatever it's seeing from where you are," told Audrey.

Jenna looked out again, startled when hundreds of ships appeared out of nothingness. The computer was beeping rapidly behind her and everyone rushed over to the window to get a better look. Jenna nearly punched the woman beside her that bumped into her wounded shoulder. Most of the ships in view were damaged in some way, either extensively or by a small margin. Unfortunately for the last of the Melanics, though, the starships were all E-Human.

"Oh shit."

* * *

Transports were leaving for the surface as the final hours of the day ticked away. The male hangar of the _Nirvana_ was empty of all Vanguards, pilots and accompanying equipment. There were far less engineers around and the only ships left were the special Dreads, Hibiki's Vanguard and a pair of Mejerian transports. Meia wished she had something better to do other than checking over the same formations and running another maintenance check on her Dread when she knew it was already in top condition. A part of her just wanted to keep away from people for the duration of the day, but she knew that wouldn't be possible.

"Meia, what are you doing up there?" Jura called out from way down on the hangar floor.

"Just making sure I'm all set for tomorrow. You should do the same."

"Oh please, we've all gone through the same standard routines all day. You have to take a break, Meia. You're starting to wear me out."

Meia sighed and shut the panel exposing the wiring that ran through the interior of her ship. Standing up to get a look at Jura, Meia saw that the blonde wasn't alone. She wasn't expecting Pyoro, Dita and Hibiki to be waiting down there with her, yet there they were with smiles pasted on their faces.

"Don't you ever get tired of doing the same thing over and over again?" asked the cocky Vanguard pilot as Meia climbed down.

"I don't know, don't you ever get tired of being annoying?" seemed to be the best rebuttal in the Squadron Leader's mind.

"Nah, it's just too fun."

"So, are we all set?" asked Jura when Meia finally reached the floor.

"Looks like it. I guess the only thing left to do is wait."

The day went by much slower than Meia thought it would. Considering they were expecting the entire Earth Fleet to arrive within the next twenty-four hours, every minute felt like an eternity. Fortunately for the Squadron Leader, she wasn't going to be alone when the time came. One look at her fellow Vandread pilots was all she needed to know that they were going to stick right beside her until the very end.

"What are you all doing here anyway?" Meia asked.

"The Ghost Wolves are leaving for Mejere on the last two transports. I figured we'd see them off since it might be the last time…"Dita trailed off as the grim possibilities of the coming days came to mind. With so many faces locked in their memories, it was hard to accept that they may never see any of them again after tomorrow. Meia had gone through these same motions before every battle, yet it didn't change how she felt. She could put a serious look on her face and pretend she wasn't affected by anything, but that never changed the fact that every death hurt her more and more. No matter whom it was or where, she would feel responsible for each one.

Voices pulled the five away from their moment of awkward silence and directed them towards the hangar entrance. Right away, they could hear Crispy bragging about how he could take control of E-Human starships with no problem while OJ was bragging about how he could end the whole war with one shot if Zeeron gave him the opportunity. Like always, Murdock's reply was, "Bull."

"Check it out Captain, we have a bigger farewell party than we thought," said Marcus when he spotted the Vandread pilots.

"We're just glad to see you get off of our ship. Coming here and eating our food like you own the place…" responded Hibiki.

"Well, you won't have to worry about that anymore," said Salem. "If everything goes as planned, we'll all die horrible deaths by the week's end."

Meia wished the Ghost Wolves weren't so grim when it came to their jokes, but for whatever reason she couldn't see them any other way. The Wolves making a joke out of something serious made the coming nightmare bearable in her mind. Maybe the whole invasion was a joke that she just didn't understand yet. They were soldiers that saw the people they killed in person, witnessing the worst of humanity firsthand instead of from the cockpit of a Dread. If they couldn't be lighthearted about what they did, then they probably wouldn't be where they were now. Meia in no way envied what they had coming to them when the full brunt of the E-Human Fleet struck the Alliance Fleet.

_Just keep your promise and Salem will keep his._

The whirring of engines filled the room as the shuttles powered up. One rose into the air and flew out of the energy sealed hangar while the other sat idle on the tarmac. "Captain Citadel, transports are behind schedule! We need to ship out!" a female pilot called out from across the hangar.

"Dammit Murdock, I told you we were going to be late!" OJ said as he and the others ran to catch the red colored ship, leaving Marcus and Salem behind. "This is why you don't try to pick up chicks before combat!"

As the others headed up the boarding ramp into the transport shuttle, Marcus searched for something in his bag. "Hey, Barnette, I wanted to give you something before I left," he said.

Barnette gave Meia a look that pretty much said without speaking, "Why the hell would he want to give me something?"

Marcus, after about a minute, pulled a sheathed knife out of his bag. "I figured since you were into old weapons and such I'd give this to you." Barnette hesitantly took the object to look at it. "It's a Tantō field knife. My dad said an ancestor got it off a Japanese soldier in some big war and it's been passed down to every family member that enlisted in a military ever since. He said it's lucky and that no one has ever had to sharpen it yet." Barnette seemed as mesmerized by the uncalled for gift as everyone else, gently unsheathing the blade to get a better look t it. Right away, Meia saw spots of red around the rim of the sheath and on the guard where it met the blade.

"Have you actually had to use this before," Barnette asked in astonishment.

"Knives don't run out of ammo, you know?" Meia couldn't tell whether Barnette was thankful or horrified by the obvious gift of affection. Obviously they had gotten along much better than Meia had thought, but it was still strange to see a soldier like him acting in such a way. As Salem had already proved, the Ghost Wolves weren't average warfighters.

"Thank you," Barnette finally said with a big smile. When she finally realized everyone was staring at her and Marcus, she straightened up and got rid of the smile, unable to hide her red face though.

"Well, young man, I guess you better get going. Our Earth friends aren't going to wait on us forever," told Magno, holding out her hand.

Salem gave a wry smile and shook her hand. "I suppose they won't." Turning to Hibiki, Salem held out his hand. "The stars are all yours, kid. It's been fun."

Hibiki grinned. "I still owe you for helping us out twice."

"The only thing you owe me is life. You live it to the fullest if we beat the E-Humans, got it?"

Shaking the Ghost Wolf Captain's hand, Hibiki said, "You got it."

Meia's heart raced as Salem walked in her direction. She was still embarrassed about the way she told him everything about the nightmare, the one that all the sudden changes were being based off of. She still hung onto the hope that the dream was simply just a dream, but fate hadn't been so kind up to this point. Still, deep down, she felt there might be a different reason why her temperature was rising as he neared. "I do intend to keep that promise, Ms. Gisborn."

_Why does he have to be so formal?_

"Meia's just fine, Salem. And don't worry, I'll keep my end of the promise too," she said.

Lowering his voice so the others couldn't hear, Salem said, "That nightmare isn't going to come true."

"I hope so." Meia hadn't noticed that the both of them still held each other's hands, even though they weren't shaking them anymore. What brought her attention to the discomfited silence between her and Salem were the shouts that echoed across the room.

"Come on Captain! Give her a big smooch!"

"You know you want to!"

"Just do it already, ya wuss!"

Salem's jaw tightened and he forced a chuckle. Meia did the same and the two stepped away from each other.

_Damn! Why are you letting yourself get so close?_

Meia gave Salem a nod and stepped back to be beside the other Vandread pilots. Salem and Marcus looked at one another and turned to start walking to the shuttle where an impatient pilot yelled at them from the cockpit. As the two Ghost Wolves walked away, Meia could hear portions of their mumbled conversation.

"You know you're shit out of luck if you go toe-to-toe with a lizard, right?"

"All for love I guess."

"You're an idiot."

"You're a pussy."

The Ghost Wolves shoved each other around when they all got onto the boarding ramp, Salem hitting Crispy with a particularly hard punch to the shoulder.

As the ramp slid back into the ship and the door closed, Commander Scyle called out to the Ghost Wolves. "Don't worry, the future isn't so bad once you get used to it!"

Captain Citadel's response was simple. "My ass!" As soon as the ship was completely sealed, it lifted off of the floor and shot out of the hangar and away from the _Nirvana_.

"They haven't changed one bit," said Magno as she fondly watched the transport disappear into the distance. "I don't care if you believe in fate, but if people like them appear in the right places at the right times the way they do, you can't help but think someone up there is pulling some strings."

"Do you really think their presence will make a difference?" asked Rebecca.

Hibiki chuckled at the question, saying, "They already have. I sure as hell didn't get off that flagship on my own."

"Well, whatever fate has in store for us, I doubt we're affecting it by standing around and burning daylight," said Scyle. The UD-22 Chaos dropship meant to take him back to _Shadow Killer_ soared into the hangar and touched down where the Mejerian shuttles had been moments ago. "There's not much time left in the day, so I suggest you all get some rest." The E-Human Commander gave a customary salute to Meia and the others and turned to walk away.

"You don't sound very convinced that we're going to win," Buzam said in a tone that reeked of mistrust.

Scyle stopped, and glanced over his shoulder. "I only know that people are in control of their own destinies. I'm not going to lose this war because you decided to slack off and let fate decide its outcome for you." With nothing else to add, Scyle walked away and climbed into the E-Human dropship.

_People are in control of their own destinies._

Meia smiled as she watched the Chaos dropship leave the _Nirvana_. She liked being reassured that everything would be alright if she tried hard enough. She sure wasn't going to let some mystical force pull the strings when she was well enough to do so on her own. In only a few hours, she expected a force beyond comprehension to show up at her home's doorstep. She and her friends would have to fight for the right to live or else face annihilation or God-knows-what if taken as a prisoner. Only a year had passed since Meia and the current crew of the _Nirvana_ ran into each other and came in contact with the Paksis Pragma. Much has happened since then, so much that Meia felt old, even at the young age of 20. Earth's Supreme Commander wasn't very keen on letting her get a much needed break from the madness she'd endured, meaning there was only one thing left for her to do. Fight until she could finally kick back and relax. Maybe then she could think about the possibility of a life with someone special.


	12. Spearhead

When the first E-Human starships dropped out of ABH, there was no hesitation as the two sides sized each other up. There were no exchanges of words or riling statements to one another. Even as thousands of warships much larger and more powerful morphed into view, every starship in the Alliance Fleet fired. Cannons flared, sending lances of plasma and energy across the vast expanse like fingers reaching out to a swarm of insects. The volley of green, blue and white slammed against the shields of the monstrous warships, causing them to brighten up and reveal their form against the dark of space. The edge of what was now E-Human territory lit up and the enemy was obscured by the magnitude of the blazing hot detonations. Even without a visual, the thousands of Alliance starships around Hibiki continued their barrage with the impossible intent to destroy everything in front of them without a fight.

At his current distance, Hibiki and his fellow pilots were useless, a trait Hibiki loathed more than anything else. Dreads had limited targeting range with their missiles and their plasma cannons and slime bullets had even shorter reach. Vanguards, of course, were even less effective at long ranges than their Mejerian/Melanic counterparts. As long as the E-Humans stayed out of striking distance, the role of the close support fleet would be that of a spectator. So for the time being, Hibiki and his fellow pilots hid behind the shields of the _Nirvana_, taking in the sight of the most awesome and terrifying display of firepower he had seen from his allies.

_I hope you son of bitches are enjoying this._

By the time the first few minutes passed, the E-Humans were ready to fire back. Even amidst the unrelenting firestorm, the E-Humans were able to recover quickly from the surprise attack. Hibiki recoiled back into his seat as a slug impacted against the _Nirvana_'s shields, hitting way too close than he would have liked. "They're pretty quick to start shooting, aren't they?" he muttered, grasping the controls of the golden Vanguard.

"It's gonna be like this for a while so keep you shirt on," told Gascogne, sounding almost amused at Hibiki's discontent.

Jura was quick to respond, "It doesn't mean we have to like it." Bart let loose another volley of plasma at the blinded enemy just as Taraak's automated defense grid moved in for the attack.

What remained of the defense grid from the battle with the Red Paksis was repositioned for this operation. Hiding amongst the debris of the old battle, the AI controlled anti-starship mines and turrets were able to get the drop on the E-Human 2nd Fleet as soon as they got close enough. The AS mines looked like a small, metallic cloud of dust from Hibiki's position, a cloud that compacted as it moved in around the hostile fleet. Once again, after a few more seconds, explosions ripped through the attackers before they realized they were in greater danger. Explosions of different sizes brightened up the edge of E-Human space and visuals on the enemy were soon completely cut off, just as the Alliance Fleet had planned.

"This is it! Green light, I repeat, green light on all operations!" A Mejerian Admiral called out. Other commanding officers from Melanis and Taraak immediately repeated the order over the comm and their subordinates did the same. A large portion of the Alliance Fleet broke ranks and accelerated towards the stunned enemy.

"Dread teams, we're moving out, stay right behind us!" Magno shouted as Bart pushed the _Nirvana_ forward.

"Go time," Hibiki said as he and his fellow pilots tailed their Captain.

With Hibiki leaning into the accelerator, the Vanguard rumbled as its jets fired. It wasn't exactly capable of moving as fast as the Dreads, so the enhanced Vanguard could only linger behind the rest of the fighters as the divide between the opposing forces grew shorter. A few E-Human destroyers were still returning fire at the incoming Alliance vessels, but most of the ships were occupied with destroying the turrets firing at them from the cover of their own Harvester flagships' remains.

"Dread teams, prepare to disperse in 5," Meia coolly warned. 2nd Fleet of the greater Earth Grand Fleet was much closer now, but now with fewer obstructions keeping them from seeing the advancing Alliance starships.

Hibiki was eyeing the first frigate he would sink his swords into when a mass of black morphed in front of the _Nirvana_.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Buzam barked nearly at the same time as Bart had dipped the starship downwards. Hibiki shoved the controls upward to dive below the cruiser.

"They're sending the other fleets in! Watch out!" A Taraakian managed to say before a frigate jumped right on top of his own. Metal twisted and buckled as ships exited out of ABH travel on top of the Alliance Fleet and in some cases, on top of their own. The _Nirvana_ grazed the lower shielding of the cruiser and caused the invisible barrier to flash. The frigate Hibiki had his eye on wasn't so quick to dodge the sudden obstruction. Flying right past the cruiser, Hibiki watched as the ship's shields gave way to the frigate's momentum and allowed for the two E-Human ships to collide with one another. The frigate practically disappeared within the ball of plasma that exploded outward from the cruiser.

_Well, that's two down already. I barely had to do a thing._

Hibiki knocked a piece of twirling debris out of his way and narrowly dodged another as ships collided with one another in the close proximity of the battle. He could hear Bart grunting as the helmsman mustered all his strength to move the _Nirvana_ through the sudden maze of destruction. Another ragged bit of metal deflected off of the Vanguard's shoulder, causing a brief but painful stabbing sensation in Hibiki's arm.

He must have grunted louder than he thought because Dita was quick to ask, "Hibiki are you okay?"

_I wish she wouldn't do that at a time like this…_

"Don't worry about me," he told, searching the immediate area for her bright blue Dread. "Just keep your eyes open."

One of Scyle's predictions was that of an immediate mobilization of other E-Human fleets when the attack began. The upside to his hunch was that the two hostile fleets were in complete disarray and were crashing into one another more than they were attacking the Alliance vessels. Of course, the downside of his guess was that the new fleet jumped into the system much sooner than expected. If the shouts over the comms were anything to go by, at least a dozen Alliance ships were incapacitated already. Hibiki was glad he wasn't as quick to jump into a fight as he used to be; he didn't want to be taken out of the fight too early.

Another explosion rippled through a destroyer beside Hibiki, it's blindingly white light causing him to wince even though the light was indirect. He banked right just in time to dodge the battered remains of a Vanguard getting thrown his way. Bart was up ahead, pushing the _Nirvana_ straight through the mess and knocking damaged starships out of the way with its shields like a battering ram. Burning husks crumbled against the translucent blue energy field as the helmsman barely missed hitting the destroyed ships head on.

Hibiki didn't have to wait long before he began taking fire. A Vanguard jetted straight into him from the right and knocked him off course. Before Hibiki had time to react, another E-Human drove his ship into the two, forcing all three to tumble nearly uncontrollably for a few seconds. Hibiki felt as if he had the wind knocked out of him, but that didn't stop him from retaliating. He punched the nearest Vanguard in the "face" as hard as he could, aiming for the cameras where the machine's "eyes" were located. He fired his jets at the same time, pushing the other E-Human off of him so that he could focus all his energy on the one in front of him. Hibiki grabbed a hold of one of the E-Human's arms and brought his elbow down on his opponent's, smashing through the joints and mechanisms in one hit. A thruster boosted right hook sent the Vanguard flipping backwards while Hibiki drew his energy sword to fight off the other combatant. Turning around, the Vanguard pilot found his opponent wasn't alone any more. A dozen or so E-Human Vanguards were headed for him with weapons already drawn.

_Time to go._

Hibiki whirled the Vanguard around and picked his way through the debris as the Vanguards gave chase. He was separated from the others already and the comm was flooded with voices. For the time being, Hibiki was going to have to fight alone and like everything else that had been happening so far, ahead of schedule. He fired the forward jets to stop and turned to get himself ready for the next attack.

* * *

Prowl slid across the table on his back and toppled over the other side, landing on his head and disorienting him more than he already was. His head was spinning and he coughed up blood. The Commander tried getting back to his feet, but he was kicked in his gut and tossed against the wall before he even knew the Supreme Commander had vaulted over the holo-table.

"You told me they were dealt with Commander! You told me you killed them!" Zeeron yelled as he approached the fallen Commander. Unfortunately, Prowl had nothing to say on the matter, so the Supreme Commander resumed his assault.

It was bad enough that 2nd Fleet fell victim to its own surprise attack and that the unauthorized intervening of 3rd Fleet led to even more allied casualties, but the fact the _Nirvana_ was still alive even after all it had been through made everything even worse. The majority of the Earth Fleet still sat well out of the way of the battleground, watching the live recordings of the fight. As soon as the _Nirvana_ was identified, Zeeron was on Prowl, beating him within an inch of his life.

The Spec Op Commander managed to get onto one knee and spit out some of the blood in his mouth, daring to look the Supreme Commander in the eye even in his condition. The other Supreme leaders were watching the two, keeping distant in fear of Zeeron's rage. Even beaten, Prowl pitied them. He despised the fact that they were so cowardly when it came to dealing with Zeeron. Prowl didn't get to where he was by displaying such cowardice and he would die before he acted as they did. The Commander would face his mistake, even if it meant the death of him. With that thought, Prowl got to his feet, as much as it hurt to do so.

"I've underestimated the boy and because of that he still lives. Then again, I suppose we've all underestimated him," Prowl said, looking to his leader and to the others. "I've been too busy thinking they're weak, we all have. Despite what we may think of them, my liege, they endure." Zeeron still seemed ready to rip off Prowl's head, but at least he was listening. Pointing to the holographic battle playing out on the table, the Spec Op continued. "Look at how they've positioned their fleet. Orbital platforms situated over the cities we want and their forces evenly spaced over their two planets. They know what we have in mind and now they're taking advantage of that fact."

"And they have this 'advantage' because of your failure, Prowl…" Zeeron growled.

"This failure is both of ours, my liege. One that can, of course, be fixed." The Supreme Commander seemed intrigued, unclenching his fists slightly. He didn't say anything, but he gave a gesture as if he wanted Prowl to continue. Prowl took the Supreme Commander's cue and looked over the battle in front of him. "Obviously this sector is no longer suitable for fleet insertion…" he began moving the simulation around in space to get a better view. "The bulk of their fleet sits with a direct line of sight to where 2nd and 3rd Fleets are now being bombarded. My instincts tell me we can suspect something waiting for us on the opposite side of their worlds, but we already know that their best is already on the front lines. Going for their main cities this side of Mejere would not be favorable for we'll lose many and we'll kill even more of our quarry in the process. I can suspect that they've already begun evacuating most of their civilian population to other more remote locations, probably leaving them less defended to give the impression of unimportance. The northern and southernmost regions of their world seem to suit this theory as their fleet is the thinnest there."

"Taking major cities first was supposed to ensure that we have a firm grip on their world. How are we supposed to gain a foothold without them?" One of the generals protested.

"We wanted to take those locations because that plan assumed they didn't know we were coming. Surely, as I've said before, they've moved their people away from danger and onto other locations. Halo City is now useless to us and will only see the death of thousands if not millions of our warriors if we try for it now." Prowl looked to Zeeron before he continued. "You may not like it, but we have to take our time with this conquest." Zeeron stepped closer looking to the current skirmish first then back to Prowl. He didn't say it, but Zeeron definitely seemed to not like that idea.

"I plan on achieving the same outcome as I had originally intended. Your way means we're going to be here longer than expected," the Supreme Commander thought.

Prowl nodded, "Yes, my liege, much longer."

The room fell silent again as Zeeron paced around the holo-table. Just from the way the Supreme Commander's eyes were squinted and the way he raked a claw against his chin, Prow could tell Zeeron was considering the new option. In his mind, the Commander knew that Zeeron was well aware of his unrealistic expectations. Mejere wasn't going to be swift decisive victory anymore. Many of his men will be lost as well as what they had come to acquire in the first place. The Alliance was going to hold ground and make the Grand Fleet fight for every bit of land until the True Humans could wrench the planet out from under their corpses. Now with the _Nirvana_ and the Vandreads in the way, all previous assault predictions were null.

After some time, Zeeron scaled the map down so he could see more of the system. With sweeping motions, he drew new formation movements while he spoke. "Until further notice, all ground-side operations are on standby. 1st and 4th Fleets will jump into system at these new coordinates. 1st will move to engage the hostile fleet from this vector while 4th will move, but not engage, from this one. We need them to think we're still trying to take them head on."

"I'm sure they'll still keep defenses somewhat spread out. We still don't know how much they've learned about us," Prowl stepped in.

"I may have a way to keep them guessing, but it will require your expertise if you're still looking for redemption," Zeeron told. The Commander already had all sorts of scenarios running through his mind concerning his Spec Op talents. He was without a stealth frigate so whatever the Supreme Commander had in mind would involve the spook getting his hands dirty. Prowl found no problem with that at all.

* * *

Deflecting the first sword slash with the armor on his arm, Hibiki stabbed the enemy Vanguard in its exposed chest and knocked it back with his knee. A quick thruster boost closed the gap between him and the next combatant. He collided with the machine, hitting the "neck" area with his arm in an attempt to dislodge the head or at least damage something important. Without waiting to find out if he had, he slashed diagonally through the Vanguard and then horizontally to completely dismantle and remove the obstacle out of his way. A beam of plasma flared by him and hit the already destroyed E-Human cruiser behind him. Fuel cells detonated under the smoldering armor and sent the Vanguard tumbling forward while Hibiki fought to keep the ship under control. The collision alarm was still blaring.

The intertwined fleets were taking blind pot shots at one another, with the Alliance typically avoiding hits. The E-Human ships were too big to miss, but it was hard to tell the "live" ones from the "dead" ones. The Alliance ships were able to use the remains of other vessels as cover to take shots at the enemy as long as they didn't get caught out in the open. As far as he could tell, it took dozens of shots from multiple ships just to bring down the shields of an E-Human cruiser while it took practically one for them to do the same to Taraakian cruisers, the biggest ships at the Alliance Fleet's disposal next to the limited amount of battleships it had. Fortunately, the battle groups still sitting above Mejere and Taraak were able to provide long range support with minimal friendly-fire so far, though that last shot certainly didn't help Hibiki and his team.

Hydoras passed by before Hibiki had realized his radar warned him of their presence. From the look of it, the fighters didn't seem to know he was nearby. "Hey, wait up!" he called out over the short-range comm. He grabbed a bit of metal beside him and hurled it at the enemy, hitting one in the engine and causing it to rupture. The rest of the squadron turned around without hesitation with Hibiki now in their sights. "Did I do that?" he mocked with a smile before moving behind cover. He gnashed his teeth when he realized several more starfighters were moving in from his intended destination. Cursing himself for not paying attention to his radar again, Hibiki raised his arm and fired the autocannon built into the wrist of his machine. He preferred to use his hands to destroy his enemies, but taking on fighters with a sword was fairly harder than taking on another Vanguard. The explosive bullets shredded through one of the Hydoras and clipped one of the others. The fighters attempted to peel off, but not before Hibiki sliced his sword down the bow of another. The ship twirled right into one of the ships from the other squadron behind him, an occurrence the Vanguard pilot was very pleased with. Plasma bolts splashed against his side before he was able to turn and make a dash for the next bit of cover.

As he squeezed his way past the closely packed wreckage, he kept an eye out for plasma fire of a distinct coloring. Red pulses from E-Human craft were all he'd seen for the past few minutes and even though he could hear their voices, Hibiki hadn't seen another Alliance vessel since the second enemy fleet had jumped into the system. He hoped they were doing much better than he was.

"Tokai, is that you?" a voice called out. At the corner of Hibiki's screen, a face appeared with a male looking back at him. Just from the way he was dressed and how fair skinned he was, Hibiki could tell he was from Melanis. A series of beeps from the computer also told him that the man was alongside others. "We've got trouble over here. You think you can lend a hand?"

"No problem. I'm on my way!" Hibiki replied, bringing up an enhanced view of his radar on his screen. The Melanic squadron was somewhere ahead of him and from the look of it, they were in trouble. Breaking cover for only a second, Hibiki suddenly regretted rushing to their aid.

A battleship, the largest ships of the E-Human fleet besides _Sui Generis_ itself, ominously hovered before him with its defensive cannons firing at Melanic Dreads left and right. Thousands of Hydora fighters seemed to be leaving its hangars at the same time as they retaliated against the sudden Melanic attack. It seemed as if they wanted to shut down any nearby opposition as soon as possible. Streaks of plasma from what seemed to be Mejerian warships hit the front of the battleship, but it was obvious that the shields absorbed the damage completely. Lights alongside the ship glowed brightly, starting from the rear and moving to the front. As all the lights reached the bow, a massive opening became illuminated within as the main weapon powered up. As soon as the barrel was glowing white hot, the ship fired. The slug blasted apart the unrecognizable husk in front of it and traveled out of sight. Seconds later, rays of light peeked through the debris from a series of explosions as a Mejerian battle group lost dozens of destroyers from a single shot.

The Melanic Dreads fled the scene with the squadron leader yelling to Hibiki, "Tokai, we have to get out of here! We're screwed without a nuke to take 'em out!" Hibiki followed them, well aware that the E-Human squadrons were going to try and shut them up before they gave away the leviathan's position.

"I need to find the _Nirvana_; we'll take care of that thing without nukes."

The squadron zigzagged away from the incoming swarm while the Melanic squadron leader spoke. "We caught sight of it a few minutes ago. It was powering through this mess with its fighters in tow. At the speed they were moving, they're probably in the middle of the enemy's ranks by now." Red pulses barely missed Hibiki's shoulder and hit the rear of the Dread in front of him. The woman called out a mayday before smashing against the burnt hull of a Taraakian frigate.

"You guys hook up with the rest of the assault fleet, I'll take care of these guys," Hibiki ordered.

"We go where you go Tokai. This isn't a one-man job." Hibiki would have thought the man to be stubborn, but he knew the man was right. With a couple hundred Hydoras headed his way, he couldn't take them all with just his Vanguard.

"Stick close," he said. "We'll take them all down."

"Roger that," the squadron leader said, ordering his squadron to form up on Hibiki.

Hibiki fired the forward boosters to bring his Vanguard to an abrupt halt. He drew a sword and swung backwards, this time after he took a peek at his radar. The expected Hydora was nearly severed in half from bow to stern from the horizontal slash and the next fighter suffered damage to the same extent. The third ship crashed into Hibiki head on, covering the Vanguard in plasma and thrusting it backwards with its momentum. Even with the extremely painful burning sensation over his body, he was able to take aim with the autocannon and fire at the others. The Vanguard stabilized and Hibiki pushed onward into the incoming squadron. He kept a firm grip on the control stalk as he dodged incoming plasma and rockets. He slashed through another pair of Hydoras before the rest got smart and pulled away.

_You guys should know better than to get close to a Vanguard, especially mine._

The Melanic squadron gave chase to the E-Humans, freeing up some space for Hibiki. He fired on the fleeing ships before another group of hostiles caught his attention; More Vanguards. "Alright, let's do this," he grinned, taking hold of another sword.

* * *

"Gascogne, I need a refill!" Barnette called out. She watched the last of her missiles detonate against the front of the cruiser in front of her. If her aim was correct, she scored a direct hit to the ship's bridge, now rendering the ship useless. She immediately reconsidered that thought as defensive cannons began firing on her.

_The bridge wouldn't control everything on the ship obviously, idiot._

She pulled away and immediately lined up a shot on the enemy Vanguards deploying from one of the side hangars. She squeezed the trigger in three second bursts for each enemy in her crosshairs. Avoiding the thickest of their remains, she pushed past the destroyed mechs to link up with the rest of her team.

"Barnette, we're moving on," Meia said as the _Nirvana_ passed the disabled ship. "We'll let the fleet take care of this one."

"We're moving on already? We haven't destroyed a single ship yet." Barnette moved her ship close to the _Nirvana_ as it crashed through more derelicts.

"We can't focus on every one, not when we're down a man."

"Dammit, where the hell did that kid go?" Jura asked as she formed up beside the two.

"Do you think he's okay?" asked Dita, already sounding worried.

"You know better than to ask that, Dita," Barnette told. "He hasn't had trouble on his own before, why would he now?" Judging by the smile on the girl's face, Barnette could tell Dita was comforted by that thought.

"Yeah, you're right." Meia added, "Besides, a couple of our own are MIA. I suspect most of the assault fleet is in a similar state. We'll probably have to get used to losing track of one another in this mess, especially when the bulk of the Earth Fleet arrives."

A pair of Mejerian destroyers fired into the crippled cruiser behind the _Nirvana_ and a bright ball of flame engulfed the doomed ship. "We're definitely lucky this 'mess' is making it hard for these things to move," Barnette commented, taking pleasure in the demise of another E-Human ship.

Her satisfaction of the day's events lessened as soon as one of her wingwomen called out, "Incoming enemy squadron. Counting twenty plus wings headed our way." Emerging from above and within the broken chassis' of a pair of Taraakian cruisers were thirty or so Hydoras with about a dozen Vanguards to support them.

"Engaging," Meia informed, prompting Jura then Barnette to do the same.

The squadrons separated as targets were locked in, but not before Barnette and her wingwomen were able to zero in on a formation they would go after. Following both the red blips on her radar and the bluish exhaust left behind from the Hydoras' engines Barnette twirled the ship past the wrecks of allied Dreads and Vanguards. It seemed that the other Alliance ships that had made it this far into the E-Human fleet's formations didn't last very long. Either the lizards were having a hard time tracking the _Nirvana_ and its accompanying personnel, or they were weary enough to steer clear of the now legendary ex-pirate ship. Barnette loved thinking the E-Humans were afraid of her and her friends, it would make defending her home that much easier.

The Hydoras had figured out that they were being followed and attempted to lose the Dreads. Barnette lessened her pressure on the accelerator just enough so the Dread could make turns sharper without falling behind. As soon as one ship began to separate from the others, she immediately adjusted to intercept, ordering her wingwomen, "Stay on them! I got this one." She squeezed off a pair of shots, grazing the fighter instead of hitting center mass as she had hoped. The Hydora shifted course right away and Barnette lost sight of the ship as it shot forward into denser cover.

_Come on chicken shit, where are you going?_

Barnette pushed the Dread faster, now determined to finish the job. She was so focused that she didn't realize the others were yelling for her to stay in the area. She would soon wish she had listened to them.

* * *

"That damn girl's never gonna learn is she?" Bart heard Gascogne mutter over the comm.

Bart tried keeping track of his friends in the chaos of the battle, but unfortunately the center of his attention at the moment had to be keeping the _Nirvana_ from crashing into large dead objects head on. He would have asked if he should pull out of the current warzone, but he already knew that they would all be in bigger trouble if they were targeted by the battleships that they were tasked with taking down. So far, none of the target ships had shown up, a thought that brought hope to the helmsman. He would prefer not to fight a battleship in such close quarters, especially since the _Nirvana_ had trouble locking onto targets at close range. The fact that the ship was lacking in other offensive capabilities to fight conventionally, like most warships, did didn't help the situation.

_And of course they just had to attack when the ship isn't running at full power. I hate Earth._

As Bart eyed another large chunk of starship, he warned, "Hang on." He fired rotational thrusters and accelerated around the debris, watching the blackened forms around him for anything that looked "alive". Right away, he targeted a small battle group of cruisers, all of them evenly spaced apart as if they'd been holding formation all day. Not wasting any more time to think about why they didn't seem to be rushing into combat like the other ships, he charged up the _Nirvana_'s cannons and locked on to everything he considered important on those vessels. Larger defensive cannons, hangars, sensor arrays and bridges lit up bright blue in a fraction of a second as the Paksis aided Bart in his target acquisition.

"Firing weapons, Captain!" he instinctively called out before letting loose with the plasma barrage. The bluish-white beams weaved their way through the thick cloud of destruction to find their way to the starships before the _Nirvana_. The defensive barriers bubbled outwards as the enemy ships were slammed with the powerful Paksis charged attack. A handful of smaller ships were destroyed while the bigger ships only took slight damage. The E-Humans reacted instantaneously, saturating the area around the _Nirvana_ with as much artillery as they could fire. Tracers and streaks of energy tore down through the zero-G scrap yard, violently cutting leftovers and husks apart with ease. Even before they yelled at him to do so, Bart was already maneuvering the starship out of the line of fire.

"Bart!" Barnette shouted as the ship pushed through the titanium maze.

"I'm a little busy, Barnette," Bart replied, grimacing as he gazed by another fallen craft. Barnette sounded like she was warning him about something, but Bart didn't exactly catch what she said over the mixed shouts that began to fill the comm again. Suddenly, he ran into what she might have been warning him about.

Beneath the formation of E-Human warships Bart had fired upon was an undamaged, terrifyingly large battleship, one that was facing him down. Bart could practically feel the sweat building up on his brow even in that instant. Making matters worse was the bright glow coming from the barrel of the main cannon.

"Bart, move it!" Magno shouted.

"Shit!" He fired all lower thrusters and rocketed the _Nirvana_ upwards, hoping to get something between him and the battleship.

"Brace for impact!" Buzam shouted over the PA just before the battleship fired. The slug smashed through the Mejerian wreck Bart managed to get behind and hit against the _Nirvana_'s spherical shields at an angle, causing the plasma charged slug to deflect downwards. Bart still felt the pain of the attack, but at least he managed to avoid a direct hit.

"Commander, try to reach the main fleet again and give them the exact coordinates for that battleship!" The Captain ordered. "Bart, keep us moving around that thing, but don't let it leave your sight." Words that Bart didn't exactly want to hear.

The hull of the battleship lit up like a Christmas tree as guns all along the ship opened fire, providing 360 degrees of protection. The rest of the nearby battle group moved in sync with the _Nirvana_, most likely trying to get a good shot at it. This was something Bart couldn't allow.

"Captain, we've got a lot of fighters moving in on us, a bit more than we can handle," Meia told. "We're not going to be able to hold this location without help from the rest of the fleet."

"We can't let that thing get away though," Rebecca commented. "This is the best shot we have at hitting the E-Humans hard early on." Bart may not have wanted to fight a battleship this early, but he had to agree with Rebecca. His weapons weren't going to do much to the massive ship and Hibiki was still missing. The only option left for him and his allies was to stick around long enough for the Alliance to get a fix on their position and hope that they could get a tactical Muramasa warhead in to take care of the nuisance. If the ship wasn't destroyed, it would at least be temporarily disabled. Exhaling sharply, he veered the ship hard to port, swinging it around to line up another shot at the ships firing at him. Without asking, he disabled the _Nirvana_'s shields. He'd have to be particularly careful about not letting the ship get hit, but at least the shields will be a bit stronger when he did need them.

"Alright, where in the hell did you guys go?" Hibiki shouted. Out from behind some remains up ahead appeared the golden Vanguard with a formation of Melanic fighters following. "How the hell am I supposed to combine when you guys go running ahead?"

Bart couldn't believe how relieved he was to hear his buddy's voice again. He was only gone for few minutes, but with all the destruction around him, Bart just didn't like thinking he'd find the gold Vanguard's remains amongst the field of death around him.

"Well the thought slipped our minds. It's about time you caught up with us," Meia replied.

"Yeah, yeah. Are we gonna take this thing down or what?"

Bart told him with a grin, "Well we won't get anywhere talking about it, will we?" The Vanguard was out of the battle group's sightline and wasn't being targeted by the battleship. Bart moved the _Nirvana_ further away from the large ship so that Hibiki and the others could have their space. Bart would have all of his attention focused on the enemy above.

* * *

_Red Claw_ was the first Dread Hibiki saw coming towards him after linking up with the _Nirvana_. He'd been trying to work out which Dread he should combine with to tackle the current problem and Vandread-Jura seemed to be the best choice. "Jura, hold up. Let's combine," he told while slowing the Vanguard. Jura shifted the Dread's course to intercept Hibiki.

The Melanic Dreads pushed past the Vanguard with their squadron leader saying, "We'll join up with your crew while you take care of that big bastard. Good luck." Hibiki nodded to the man's image before switching off the view.

As Jura's ship neared, Hibiki's vision filled with white and his body suddenly became numb. The calm bluish haze of the Paksis Pragma surrounded him in that instant before his vision came back. When the whiteness faded away, Hibiki was inside the cockpit of Vandread-Jura, already working out the kinks in his plan. Right away, he told Jura, "There's about thousand of those fighters keeping close watch over that battleship, too many for any other ships to get close. I say we put a barrier around that thing and lock in the bastards so we can crush them."

"And how are we going to do that with that battle group keeping watch over head?" Jura asked.

"I can take care of them. Don't worry," Bart told, sounding very self-assured about his role.

"And the 'crushing'?"

Hibiki grinned, replying, "We'll shrink the barrier around them."

Jura smirked, saying, "Sounds simple enough."

Jura rotated her seat around the center controls so she could pilot the Vandread. She brushed away the strands of hair clinging to her forehead from the sweat and narrowed her eyes, focusing at her task. Hibiki, on the other hand, put in the commands for the ship's barrier ability. Several red discs spanning six meters in diameter shot away from the Vandread, each one of them moving in separate directions. Hibiki watched the holographic map between he and Jura as the discs moved equidistant from one another without any E-Humans taking notice. The computer acknowledged the completion of the order with a green light on the console and a short high-pitched beep.

"Hit it," Jura told, prompting Hibiki to activate the barrier. Green energy spread outwards from the Vandread towards the nearest discs. Crystals within the objects refracted the energy, sending it outward to the others. In only seconds a green sphere surrounded the area around the E-Human battleship, keeping the Hydoras, Vanguards and the battleship itself locked in. Hibiki looked up to see where the nearby warships were. Some of them had shifted course to attack Jura and him, but they were soon hit by hundreds of plasma beams, courtesy of Bart and the _Nirvana_. Additional attacks came from the Mejerian cruisers that were closing in, making sure that the battleship's defenses were completely occupied.

"Okay. Begin retracting the barrier's hard points. Keep it slow or else the barrier might collapse," Jura said, keeping an eye on the radar in case the enemy got smart. Hibiki steadied his hand and controlled the movement of the semiautonomous red discs with an interactive holographic representation of their locations. He slowly compacted his hands together as if he were making a snow ball. Looking just outside, he could see the barrier moving destroyed ships inward towards the battleship. With less and less space to move, the Hydoras and Vanguards were crashing into one another. Hibiki knew the barrier would be too weak to do anything to the battleship and would probably fail by the time most of the close support fighters were destroyed. As it would turn out, the battleship's commanding officer thought the same thing.

The battleship fired its thrusters and began moving forward as if there was nothing in its way. It was clear that the ship's Captain was hoping to ram his way out of the barrier. Hibiki wouldn't have cared so much about the move if he and Jura weren't on the other side of what the destroyed cruiser the battleship was going to ram through.

"Shit, disengage the barrier and let's get the hell out of…"

Hibiki cut off Jura, saying to her, "No, if we let 'em loose, we're gonna have to deal with its defensive cannons and a shitload of angry starfighters."

"Staying here gets us killed too!" Hibiki quickly ran a bunch of scenarios through his head. The battleship was getting closer and soon might pick up the Vandread on its radar. _Red Claw_ couldn't withstand a direct hit from its main cannon nor could it survive very long if it began taking fire from the smaller anti-starfighter weapons. Hibiki's eyes went from the star map to outside. Then he caught sight a piece of debris traveling through the outside of the barrier to the inside as if nothing was in front of it. It was then that Hibiki remembered…

_Objects can travel into the barrier, but they can't get out._

Without hesitation, Hibiki barked into the comm, "Bart, fire into the barrier, right now!" The collision alarm sounded as the battleship neared and Hibiki tensed up. "Bart, where the hell are you?" Hibiki shouted.

"Hibiki…" Concern was evident in Jura's voice, even in a single word. She was staring at the star map with the image of the battleship approaching fast.

In the midst of thinking up a new plan, someone called out, "Heads up down there!" Missiles and streams of plasma shot past Hibiki and Jura in the hundreds. Seeing that none of them resembled the beams fired by the _Nirvana_, Hibiki looked up to see who was doing the shooting. A pastel red boat-like ship being followed by dozens of Melanic cruisers above _Red Claw_ was not what Hibiki expected. Rabat appeared onscreen in front of Jura and Hibiki with the same overconfident grin on his face as always.

"Can't you guys do anything without me?" he said as the ape-like machine above his ship fired wildly into the barrier. Hibiki could have very easily returned an insult or threatened Rabat, but he was just glad someone answered his call.

The beams from all of the ships tore through everything within the barrier. Shots that passed by the battleship deflected off the interior of the transparent green energy field and continued to do damage. The trapped E-Humans were hit from every direction as a result and were shredded apart with no way to retaliate. Heat levels grew rapidly and the battleship's shields finally blew out from the pressure.

"Disengaging!" Hibiki warned, disabling the energy distribution and calling back the discs.

The computer warned of a massive energy build up on the other side of the wreck below the Vandread. Jura drove the ship out of the way in time to dodge the blast from the battleship's primary weapon. The charred remains below the Vandread split in two from the slug, and traveled onwards to the Melanic fleet.

"Jesus!" Rabat's skiff managed to narrowly avoid getting hit by the blast, but the starships behind him weren't as lucky.

"Captain the battleship's shields are down…" Jura informed, stopping when she saw the ship adjusting its trajectory. "… and I think it's mad at us." The Mejerian moved the Vandread out of the way as defensive cannons locked onto her and Hibiki.

_This isn't going to be good._

Tracers whizzed past the ship, completely ignoring the Alliance battle group firing on the battleship. "I guess they know who to take out to win now," Jura muttered through her teeth.

"Well let's not give them the satisfaction," Hibiki said, lining the up the Vandread's red discs behind it. Using the crystal reflectors on the large discs, Hibiki deflected shots away from the Vandread as best as he could. Beams and pulses were easy to deflect, but shells tended to knock the seemingly fragile saucers out of the way, making Hibiki scramble to get them back into position.

"Jura, we're moving in on your position, standby," Rebecca advised.

"If it were that easy," Hibiki groaned. A pulse hit the windshield, causing it to crack.

"Any time now, Bart," Jura pressured, not daring to look back at the battleship.

Hibiki gritted his teeth as the ship lit up with energy to fire its main cannon again. "Jura!"

Streaks of light passed by the Vandread and hit the battleship dead on. The front of the enormous ship bent out of proportion from the heat and then the ship was engulfed in a massive ball of light. Right away, its cannon misfired from the extensive damage, tearing the ship in half and rendering the core unstable. In a fraction of a second, an even bigger bloom of light engulfed the supersized E-Human leviathan.

"How about that?" Bart mocked. Cheers and celebration erupted over the comm with commanding officers shouting to regain control of their jubilant forces.

A great big smile crossed Hibiki's face and he finally felt relaxed. For the first time all day, he was optimistic. He looked to Jura then, only to see her eyes were shut tightly and that she was still holding the accelerator down. Glancing back, he saw that a large bit of metal was tumbling towards them. He frantically yelled, "Hey! Pay the hell attention!" while hitting the console with his palms. Jura perked up, realized she was on a collision course and rapidly adjusted. "Were you just flying with your eyes closed? What the hell is the matter with you?" he scolded in disbelief.

"Hey you, I thought we were going to die!"

Hibiki scoffed, "Well of course we're going to die if you're going to fly like an F-ing moron!"

"Hey who are you calling a moron!"

The two were practically shouting in each other's faces when Rabat appeared on screen again. "Hey, spiky head, if you and your gal pal haven't noticed, there's still about a hundred more of those E-Human battleships to deal with. Do you think you can hold off your honeymoon until we take those out?" The joy and anger within Hibiki suddenly sank with that realization. Only one ship had been destroyed so far out of the thousands that occupied the system. That didn't even count the thousands more that weren't in combat and were somewhere out of range, just waiting to begin their assault.

Hibiki shook his head at Jura before disconnecting with her. "We'll finish this conversation later. Right now we have more work to do." Still slightly pissed off, Hibiki followed Jura and formed up with the others to find another battleship to take down.

_Damn woman._


	13. Cloak and Dagger

"We have a window of seventy seconds before the ship jumps again. Disconnect now so we can get to the safe zone," Commander Prowl instructed over the comm as the rear hatch of the UD-22 closed.

The bright hangar lights were obscured and the cabin was now lit only by a pair of red lights, one over the rear hatch and the other over the cockpit's entryway. The Commander sealed his full-face helmet and took a deep breath as a gust of recycled air hit his face. Cracking his neck he faced the soldiers seated behind him.

Twenty Spec Op warriors, handpicked by the Supreme Commander himself, sat waiting inside the dropship with Prowl. In full deep space combat gear, the Spec Ops all sat in silence as the dropship's engine rumbled to life. Each one of them was a veteran of past civil wars back on the homeworld and would be vital to Prowl's infiltration. The Supreme Commander was putting the best he had into this particular operation.

Prowl made his way into the cockpit and took the empty co-pilot seat, nodding to the pilot who was engaging the launch sequence. "All systems check, sir," the pilot informed. Just outside were seven more Chaos' filled with Zeeron's finest. As Prowl had thought, the others were lifting off the tarmac as the frigate prepared to exit out of ABH.

"Prowl to bridge, we're ready for drop. Start the timer on my mark."

Seconds ticked by before a moon and stars suddenly appeared outside of the hangar. The meteorite battered moon had hundreds of asteroids hovering around it with bits of waste and junk from heavy starship traffic. The other and more obvious thing Prowl noticed were the specs of artificial light strewn along the planetoid's surface. The frigate had finally exited out of ABH, marking the beginning of the operation.

"Mark!" Prowl shouted.

The dropship jolted forward as the pilot fired the thrusters. In a fraction of a second, the Chaos was out of the hangar and speeding through the void at maximum velocity. The Commander glanced to either side of the ship to see the seven other dropships were following.

The officer back on the bridge of the _Chevron_ reached fifty in his countdown before the pilot warned, "Halfway there, sir."

_Plenty of time._

Prowl felt anxious knowing he was finally getting into the field again. He was accustomed with doing these kinds of risky maneuvers, but this mission was much more significant than the others. He would face the False Humans in combat for the first time and he would do so on their own planet. Everything he had done boiled down to this moment and now he would see in person who the greater species was. The Ghost Wolves couldn't be factored into his judgments because they were born from Earth like he was; they grew up in a different era than the current humans were accustomed to. How the weak and untrained men and women of Mejere and Taraak would fare against the Earthborns was anybody's guess. Sure the general consensus was that a True Human could easily defeat one of the weaker species, but Prowl was then reminded of his encounter with the pirates of the _Nirvana_. He couldn't risk underestimating the enemy again, no matter how weak they seemed.

"Twenty seconds!" The bridge commander warned that he was initializing the ABH drivers while the pilots of the UD-22s prepared their drives as well.

"Wait for it…" Prowl told as the dropships reached the minimum safe distance for ABH.

"Coordinates locked in, Commander. Counting down…"

It was day six of _Operation Retribution II_ and the so called Alliance Fleet believed they had the upper hand. Prowl had succeeded in destroying their hope before and if his objective was completed, he'd have two victories against the False Humans under his belt. Thousands of Earthen warships were still sitting in wait for either the success or failure of Prowl's mission. Whether or not Prowl lived past the next few days didn't matter because the Supreme Commander was ready to drop the hammer on the Alliance. While Prowl preferred subtlety, he understood completely that the Alliance and the traitor, Hibiki, had to be crushed early if the ground offensive was to begin.

"Drives ready, Commander. On your command," The pilot said as the ABH drivers completed their warm up.

"Hit it," Prowl ordered. UD-22 rumbled as the drives instigated the chain reaction to form a mini black hole for the dropship. Just before the ship delved into the black abyss of the artificial black hole, Prowl saw the frigate from whence his men came from shrink away into nothingness. The dropship' signatures would be hidden by the larger craft's and no one would know that Prowl and his Special Operations team were even in the area.

In a few hours, the Commander's feet will hit the dirt of an alien world. He had only a few days before the conflict was in full swing, so clearing the way for the rest of the fleet was top priority.

* * *

The light blue sky was with only a handful of clouds. There was a light breeze with the warm glow of the sun shining down onto the plains of grass. An unknown, yet familiar smell of plant life and photosynthesis wafted through the air with every slight breath. A distant flock of birds cawed and the leaves of a nearby tree rustled softly. Salem, for the first time in his life, was truly at peace.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" a woman asked. Salem didn't need to look to see who asked because he already knew.

"Yep. Sure is," he said. He heard the grass rustle next to him and from the corner of his eye he could see Meia lying beside him with her hands behind her head like his, staring up at the sky he stared up at. Her presence alone relaxed the Captain even further. He would have asked her when she had arrived, but he didn't want to ruin the moment. Since he had nothing to say, he just went back to staring at the clouds going by.

The sunset rapidly approached and soon day turned to star-filled night. Crickets chirped and owls hooted from nonexistent trees around the two. Nebulas hung over Salem with shooting stars streaming across the sky. The moon was full and larger than he remembered. Then again, he never really took time to stare at the moon before.

He didn't know how long the two of them laid there in the grass before Meia asked, "It isn't going to last, is it?" Suddenly, up in the stars above there was a distant explosion. Another followed, then another and another. Like a display of fireworks, streaks of light shot back and forth among the stars and more explosions lit up the night sky and the darkened grass. Even though Alliance starships were being destroyed before his eyes, Salem thought the sight was beautiful.

"It will last," he finally said to the blue haired woman next to him. "You can't kill something like this. It's impossible to."

The grass rustled again and now Meia was on her side looking at Salem. "Promise?" she asked softly.

Meia's features were prominent in the silvery light of the moon with the occasional splashes of red and blue from overhead explosions. The curves of her body and the serious expression on her face were as clear as day. He couldn't disappoint her, he wouldn't dare.

"I can't make a promise I don't know I can keep," he had to admit.

"Try. For me."

AA/S cannons sent red tracers up into the sky and distant artillery boomed. A squadron of Dreads screamed overhead and a dozen or so Vanguards ran by, shaking the ground with their heavy steps. Energy flickered by, nearly a meter over Salem and Meia's heads as E-Humans and Mejerians traded fire with one another. But even amidst the growing chaos of war, Salem and Meia kept their moonlit eyes locked on one another. Without another word, the two leaned into one another. Meia shut her eyes and her lips parted as she put her hand on Salem's cheek. Even with gloves on, her touch felt light. Salem placed his own gloved hand along Meia's jaw and leaned in closer. He could already feel the heat radiating off of her as their faces grew within centimeters of each other. The battle around them intensified and shells were detonating around them. People were screaming and E-Humans were snarling and roaring as they tore into the Mejerian defenses. Meia's lips felt so close now with her warm breath blowing against Salem's face.

With only millimeters to go, Salem finally spoke two words. "I promise."

* * *

"Captain, wake the fuck up!" A sharp pain swelled on Salem's head after a fist knocked against it. "Hey, wakey wakey!" Crispy said, giving his Captain a shove.

_And it was just getting good._

Salem opened up his eyes and immediately looked around. The Mejerian transport was definitely not made for military use judging by the way equipment was crudely strapped to the seats around the two Ghost Wolves. Crates were practically jury-rigged to the restraining handles located on the walls, making Salem wonder if the idea of military grade transport ever crossed the minds of the Mejerian leadership. Upon looking over the cargo again, Salem saw and felt that the starship wasn't moving. He rubbed his eyelids with two fingers and looked back to Crispy.

"We there?"

"Yeah. 'Bout a minute ago."

Salem nodded, blinking away the mild weakness in his eyes while muttering, "Swell."

Crispy had a duffle bag over his shoulder with a metallic case in the other hand. E-Human PR-20s, Salem remembered. He grabbed the same kind of case under his seat and hefted it and one other towards the closed doorway.

"Looks like they're still setting up out there," Crispy nodded towards the window by the door.

It was around noon and as Salem hoped, the Mejerians were getting everything prepared and shipped out. The last minute addition of the Vanguards from the _Nirvana _meant a whole lot of cargo had to get moving. Vanguards, being of a much different make than the Mejerians were accustomed with, needed ammunition, spare armor, power supplies and necessary tools handy wherever vehicle depots were located. It may have seemed like a lot, but Taraak's leaders only gifted so much, leaving the _Nirvana _based Vanguards a little shorthanded.

Transports were lifting away besides Crispy and Salem's with ground-based vehicles driving to and fro. Supplies in the form of crates large and small were being moved into ground based transports. Light armored vehicles were moving out with Mejerian troops in all directions but mostly in the direction of Halo City to the west. There was a pair of Vanguards helping out with heavy lifting, leaving Salem to suspect that the rest of the humanoid mechs were already on their way back to the capitol. There, they'll wait with their eyes up on the skies with the rest of Echo Battalion.

The side hatch of the ship opened, letting light flood into the somewhat dark hold. Crispy hopped out right away, so Salem followed.

"Captain," the Mejerian personnel waiting outside saluted. Even with a straight face, Salem couldn't help but wonder if the three women disliked having to salute a man. By now they surely knew he wasn't from Taraak and therefore didn't harbor any hostilities for them or any woman. But, since Mejerians were raised to hate men, maybe the two had issues that they just couldn't help.

_A different world, a different time._

Since he was in a hurry, he didn't have time to think about it. Salem gave a nod as he moved on by saying, "At ease."

Walking away, Crispy gave the impression that he might have been thinking the same as his Captain, looking over his shoulder at the women as they went about his business and saying, "Heh. They sure love us here, don't they?"

Salem held back a chuckle and only grinned and shook his head. "Just keep it moving, man. These people won't take kindly to your stares."

Crispy spun with his arms out to face Salem. "I'm just enjoying what I'm seeing, man."

"Yeah, I guarantee they're thinking much differently."

Scoffing, Crispy replied, "Lesbian or not, these chicks will soon come to love me."

"Whatever, man."

Up ahead were a series of dark red elevated trailers, more than a dozen. Some would act as temporary barracks and triage centers. A larger trailer was meant to be a cafeteria, a fact the Captain could tell because of the chimney on top of it. The comms center, however, was what the two Ghost Wolves were looking for. All they had to look for was the largest trailer with antennas and communications equipment fixed to the top. As Salem had expected, the trailer in question had a lot of activity around it.

Mejerian Guard and other workers were moving in and out of the small structure hastily. Right away, Crispy sought out someone to unload his gear onto. "Hey honey! Over here!" he called out to a passing officer. The woman didn't seem to like her new name and her disposition seemed to worsen when she realized it was a man calling out to her. "Here, take this over to the hangar and make sure they load it up with the rest of Echo's transports." He had already placed the metallic case in the woman's arms and dropped the duffle bag at her feet. "Thanks hon." Crispy jogged up the steps into the trailer before the woman had a chance to protest.

Salem only offered an apologetic shrug and moved on past the officer, keeping his cargo with him. "Carry on, Lieutenant."

Just like outside, the interior of the comms center was filled with commotion as everyone and everything was redeployed to new locations. Papers laid out on tables and desks, people crowded around machines, it was the type of atmosphere that the Ghost Wolves were used to.

One of the women looked up from her workstation. "Sergeant Grey!" she called into the next room.

Marcus and OJ peeked out from the doorway with the Sergeant grinning. "Salem, over here!" he waved over.

The other three members of Salem's squad had been at this newly setup outpost for the last few days while he and Crispy moved all over the region around Halo City. In the past week, they had been checking up on other smaller settlements, outposts and launching areas to make sure everything was moving along smoothly. In the end, it was a meaningless task that he only did to keep himself busy while the Alliance Fleet approached the end of the first week of the invasion.

Words could not describe how much the Captain hated playing the waiting game whiles the fleet up above went a whole week dealing with the E-Humans on their own. Truthfully, he had expected the Earth forces to have hit the dirt already or at least prepared to do so. As it turned out, they haven't even gotten near the orbital layer of Mejere and Taraak's defenses. As to specifics, he had only heard rumors, usually good ones.

"How were the sights?" Murdock asked when Salem walked into the room.

"I wouldn't know. I didn't really get a chance to look around out there."

"How about looking up?" OJ butted in. "I hear our boy's been workin' hard up there."

"Your girl too," Murdock added.

Salem rolled his eyes and went over to the computer screen in front of Marcus. "Any of this confirmed?"

"Bits and pieces. For the most part it seems the fleet's doing a good job of keeping the E-Humans back. Scyle said he hasn't seen a single ship get within the kill zone since day one."

"Looks like they're trying, though," said Crispy, tossing a holo-pad on the table in front of them.

The image on the 12x9 inch screen was the latest projection of Alliance and hostile fleet locations. Remnants of 2nd Fleet and the other unknown E-Human fleet were still locked in combat with a portion of the "assault" fleet. Two other E-Human fleets had jumped into the system on the third day, but only one moved in to engage the Alliance. The other fleet was merely in a staring contest with the third portion of the assault fleet, awaiting orders while maintaining a threatening appearance. Salem grinned at the thought of Zeeron sitting on his throne, stumped and unsure of what to do next. He knew that fantasy wasn't true though.

Salem slid the holo-pad back towards Crispy. None of that information helped him at the moment, though he was relieved to know certain members of the _Nirvana_ were doing just fine. "Whatever's going on up there, it doesn't concern us. At least not yet." Facing Marcus, he asked, "What else have you got?"

"Well…" The Sergeant reached over and activated the terminal beside him. "Yesterday the Taraakian Lunar Defense Corps sent us some readings they picked up a few days ago. They said they recorded them in their vicinity, but didn't detect any nearby ships."

Leaning against the cart the computer was on, Murdock added, "They said they noticed it because the readings were similar to the ones they registered when 2nd Fleet showed up."

"ABH discharge," Salem recognized.

Marcus nodded in agreement. "Looks like it. Enough to indicate at least a frigate-class warship."

Crispy pulled a seat up and sat on it backwards so he could lean against the metal chair's back. "If I didn't have experience doing such a thing, I'd say they hopped in and out of the area for a little recon."

"Can't be," OJ said, taking a look at the findings. "They weren't there very long. At least not long enough to get any useful intel. Plus they came up pretty damn close to the defenses in that area. If they were scouting for a new drop point or target, they were in the wrong place."

The same thing crossed Salem's mind, but he didn't have any alternative theories at the moment. "Maybe they weren't the ones doing the recon," Salem thought.

He stopped trying to figure out what the E-Humans were planning and started thinking about what he would do. On certain occasions a century ago, he'd initiate an assault by deploying several smaller transport craft from a fast moving corvette or frigate. The larger ship wouldn't stick around very long, but it would be enough time to deploy several dropships. That sort of maneuver was much easier to accomplish for the ABH capable E-Humans. The problem was, as OJ had already pointed out, there wasn't anything of immediate importance on Taraak's moon. However, one significant advantage the UD-22s held over conventional short-range transport was the same advantage the larger warships had over almost all of the Alliance's starships.

Salem looked back at the women operating the comm equipment behind him. "Private, get a hold of Command and tell them to report back any anomalies picked up in the last week, however small they might be, particularly in the Mejere/Taraak Expanse."

"Yes ma-... sir. Yes sir." The woman quickly looked back to the computer to forget the minor mistake.

"Take your time, Private," Marcus replied, sounding slightly amused.

The Expanse was the name of the demilitarized zone between the male and female planets. It was also where the asteroid field was most dense. Many of the orbital defenses owned by either planet's Navies used to be stationed within The Expanse with their weapons aimed at one another and ready to fire at the drop of a hat. Identifying small craft was close to impossible with all the metal buried within the tumbling rock formations, but other semi-natural things could be picked up, such as singularity spikes.

* * *

Holding the smaller human's mouth shut, Prowl sank his knife into the woman's back. Her eyes were wide and fixed on his, pleading for him to stop. "Shhhh," he whispered into her ear as she quaked in his arms. She didn't exactly struggle against him, but her body was reacting to the searing pain of his blade. A few moments later, her movements stopped and she went limp. Another body dropped beside the Commander as the rest of the squad finished off the other Mejerians in the communications relay. The Sergeant across the computer screen lit room nodded to confirm the area was clear. Holding back a smirk, Prowl let the body drop to the floor. "Prowl to Overwatch, interior secure."

"Copy, Commander. We're all clear out here. Calling in Chaos, over."

Prowl looked back to the others with him. "Set the charges. We're done here."

"That went well," one of the warriors muttered, checking the corpse of a woman still sitting in the seat in which her throat was slit. "A shame really," the man said as he brushed the woman's brown hair out of her lifeless face. "The first women we'd ever seen up close, and we had to kill them. This one was a pretty one too."

Prowl looked down to the dead woman at his feet as he considered the man's words. The frail False Human females practically cowered in the Spec Op team's presence, giving up almost entirely without a fight. It almost felt excessive to kill them, but necessary for the time being. He knelt down to wipe the blood off of his knife onto the dead woman's shirt.

"All squads, report," Prowl spoke into the comm.

"Alpha here, this station's all ours."

"Beta's all clear, sir. They're blind over here."

"Delta reporting. We just hit the dirt. Initiating assault."

Prowl nodded as he motioned for the others to move out. Gamma, Epsilon, Zeta and Eta promptly reported their mission status' while Prowl took one last look over the room. Pleased that the other squads were just as far along as his, he reminded them, "Keep it moving then. They're not completely blind yet.

Prowl jogged through the hall, paying no attention to the corpses on the grated floor. Not a single shot had been fired in the short engagement, something Prowl wasn't used to. Perhaps the E-Humans he had killed before were much more perceptive than the Mejerians. He wondered if that trait would harm the future newborns. Surely no good could come from merging genetic material with one of the weaker species, yet he was reminded that there was no other way for them to further the lifespan of the human race.

Outside, the dropship awaited with the others climbing aboard. The Commander made a note to ponder the future some other time as duty called. He climbed onto the Chaos and hit the interior wall twice to signal their departure. The ship swung around and pulled away from the gray complex.

"The signal from the sensors seem to be coming in just clearly, sir," told the warrior behind Prowl.

"Keep your finger on that detonator. We can't afford to let them catch us now." With the dropship hugging low to the tops of the pine trees the Chaos was soon away and the enormous radar dish was out of sight.

Sensors placed around the complex would warn if anybody came to check up on the station. In that unlikely event, Prowl and his men would disable the comms relays prematurely. The Spec Ops might reveal their presence on Mejere that way, but the extent of their infiltration would be unknown to the Alliance. At that point, it would be too late to do anything about it. The simultaneous strike on the comms relays located across the northern and southern regions of Mejere was without a problem so far. The size of the Commander's strike force may have only allowed for them to hit eight stations at a time, but they will all be moving on to other arrays while Delta finished clearing out the station in the Argus Mountains, about a thousand miles away from the capitol city itself. If the operation continued as smoothly as it had for the past few days, half of Mejere would be under a communications blackout and wide open for the invasion force. Prowl only hoped he could see the four chariots of Mejere's destruction descend from the skies with his own eyes when the time came.


	14. Breaking the Silence

There were a lot more dots of light in the distance that night. Some were small and static. Others were blinking and others were moving. Watching from the window of her room, Hibiki tried to remember which lights were the stars he was familiar with and which were Earth warships. His E-Human count was at thirty when a bit of roughed up armor floated in front of the window. "Dammit," he cursed to himself as he tried recounting for the twelfth time that night. At best guess there were about seven hundred ships in the fleet in front of him, give or take a few hundred. He imagined there was an E-Human looking back at him, probably counting how many Alliance vessels were between him and Mejere.

A little more than a week had gone by before most of the fighting died down. Casualty reports were still in the process of tallying up allied losses, but the numbers were expected to reach the thousands. The _Nirvana_ lost sixteen Dreads, most of which were from the opening moves. While counting the enemy numbers to himself, Hibiki couldn't help but recite the names of those lost women, trying desperately to remember their faces. He repeated their names in his head just fine, but he couldn't remember their faces no matter how hard he tried.

_Come on! Why can't you remember? Don't you dare forget them!_

"Hibiki?" Dita's partially conscience voice floated over to the Vanguard pilot.

"Damn," the boy muttered. Hibiki peeked over his shoulder, saying, "Hey. What are you doing up?"

"I can ask you the same thing," she responded. He wouldn't have time to tell her to go back to sleep because he could hear her removing the blankets and getting up from the bed. It wasn't long until her arms were wrapped around his chest. He couldn't deny that it felt good just to feel her this close, so good that he nearly forgot about why he was restless. With her chin resting on his shoulder, Hibiki leaned his head against hers, closing his eyes as he indulged in the soft silky feel of her hair. The two remained silent, enjoying their closeness for the moment before the air turned serious.

"I know," Dita said. "I've been thinking about them, too."

_Read me like a book._

"Can you remember them clearly? Their faces?" Hibiki asked, his eyes now open and staring out at the battlefield.

"Yeah. Why?"

He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. I can't picture them in my head. I can see how they were dressed and how they acted, but their faces are like blurs to me," he told. The more he thought about that, the more it ate away at Hibiki's already stressed conscience. People he knew for quite some time suddenly appearing to him like masked strangers, it was a problem that disturbed him too much to bear any longer.

How much did he really care about them if they could be stricken from his mind so quickly?

What would happen if his closer friends died?

Would he forget them too?

"You know how I do it?" Dita asked. Delicately, she turned Hibiki away from the stars he attempted to seek refuge in. Her eyes glistening in the lights of the rest station looked more beautiful than any stars he could imagine. "You think of a memory, usually a happy one. You replay it in your head over and over, thinking only about the parts that make you the happiest. Before you'll know it, you'll see them as clear as day."

The boy scoffed, rubbing his nose against hers. "That easy?"

She nodded once. "Yep. That easy." She grasped the boy's hands and pulled him back towards the bed, still keeping him close to her. "But you'll have plenty of time to think about those sorts of things when this is all over." Dita laid back and gently pulled Hibiki down with her. "There are much nicer things we can do for the time being," she said, removing the covers that hid her naked body.

_And they say women don't have mind control._

With a nervous smile, Hibiki answered, "I suppose there are."

* * *

"I told you Parfet, I got everything covered up here," Bart told.

Parfet was still typing furiously into the computer in front of her, despite Bart's words. Her furrowed eyebrows were neon lights to her stress and determination to her duties. "I just have to make sure the system reboots after five minutes, we can't have any trouble, not now."

"Like I said, I'll keep an eye on it. I'm not one to forget something like that," he reassured.

Parfet may not have seem too convinced, but at least she replied, "Okay then." Through the screen and her glasses, Bart could tell she was barely able to keep her eyes open. He on the other hand was wide awake. She breathed deeply for a few seconds before finally saying, "Bye." Her screen shut off, now leaving Bart floating in silence in the cockpit of the _Nirvana_.

The helmsman had spent most of the day sleeping, almost thirteen hours to be exact. Duelo gave him some sedatives to help him sleep after the crew had docked with the refit station in the fleet's outer ring of defenses. He didn't have to be educated like the doctor to know he may have taken too many pills. Now that he was awake, he didn't know what to do with himself. He'd eat since he hadn't eaten anything all day, but the cafeteria was closed at such a late hour. The only other place he could think of hanging out was the bridge. He had hoped that he'd catch the Commander up there doing some work, knowing well that she was a workaholic. As it turned out, he was wrong. He managed to occupy a few minutes of his time with Parfet, who was performing system repairs as the Paksis Pragma recovered, but that task went by incredibly fast.

"Up at 3 in the morning with nothing to do. That's just f-ing great," he muttered. He had to admit though; the view was particularly nice this night. A few battle groups were sitting around the _Nirvana_ all of them pointed at the bright cluster of lights in the distance. One of the Mejerian frigates was slowly passing by with a trio of battle scars lining it bow to stern. It was like a monster raked its claws along the ship. Considering how the E-Humans looked, the imagery wasn't much of a stretch.

He had to admit he got nervous whenever one of the E-Humans from _Shadow Killer_ was around. They may have been allies, but their combined size and features scared the hell out of him. Making eye contact with them was almost impossible. Based on the way the others acted, Bart figured he wasn't alone in his fear. He wondered if that unease might become a problem at some point. Those Ghost Wolves seemed pretty sure that the fight would get up close and personal and that the "weaker" Alliance humans would have to fight with every muscle in their body to stand against one of the lizard-like E-Humans. Tarakian propaganda made women out to be monsters since it would be easier to fight monsters instead of other humans. It went without saying that such propaganda would take easier with the inhuman looking reptilians.

Would that animosity be transferred to the friendly Earthborns that were on the Alliance's side?

_I really don't want to think about stuff like this right now._

Bart sighed and checked the time again. Five minutes had gone by and right on cue, the main operating system for the ship powered back up. The ship had a distinct hum when everything was powered on, one that only he seemed to notice. Perhaps he noticed because he was the only one who spends extended periods of time connected with the Paksis. Sometimes, even when he's not connected to it, he could feel how it felt. It was unnerving.

Like a draft blowing through the crack of a door, Bart felt a chill interrupt his thoughts. "Bart," a voice suddenly whispered. Startled, the pilot spun around with his heart skipping a beat. There wasn't anyone in the cockpit with him, despite how close the voice felt. "Bart." The voice was near, yet distant, disorienting the man as much as it frightened him.

"Who's there? Amarone, is that you messing with me again?" he shouted. He brought up a camera feed showing the bridge. It was empty.

_You didn't hear anything. Stop screwing with yourself._

Bart shut his eyes, running his palm down his face. Everyone else had been suffering from restlessness so it was only natural he'd be on edge. A week of almost continuous combat wasn't something any being in the universe was built for and if there were any that could live in such a condition, chances are it wasn't very stable mentally. Bart, on the other hand, had gotten his sleep. He was energized and ready to go, so he shouldn't be having these symptoms. Thinking about his sleep, he then remembered the strange dream he had.

He couldn't recall too much from it, but the only thing he clearly remembered was a woman. She and he were in a white haze similar to when he had visions of the Paksis. She was very beautiful so much so that even the most patriotically ignorant man on Taraak would instantly love women at first glance. The fair skinned woman had luminescent light bluish hair that was practically the same length as the nude body it covered. There was something about her that was familiar, very familiar. Yet despite this, Bart just couldn't place where he had seen the woman before.

Neither of them did anything in particular except talk. He couldn't recollect any of the conversation they had, maybe because he couldn't stop thinking about her beauty. The only thing that Bart knew about their talk was that it wasn't of a light hearted nature. He woke up on edge and borderline terrified. Despite the presence of such a being, he had woken up feeling like the world as he knew it was about to end. He may have wanted to see her again, but he didn't want to find out what she said that scared the hell out of him, not in the least bit.

_God, I'm going to drive myself insane with this. Keep it together you moron!_

"Who cares about a dream anyway?" he mumbled, switching on the comm to see what people were talking about. As usual, people were giving status updates to commanding officers and such. Immediately, Bart picked up an oddity in the transmissions. The audio was coming in was choppy with noticeable bits of lag between responses. His first thought was that there was an error in the ship's system reboot, but he knew better than to second guess Parfet. His second thought was that the people manning the comms relays all over Mejere and Taraak were busy redirecting signal traffic for the large fleet in orbit. But that didn't make much sense either since there weren't that many voices. Some of the people on the comm seemed to be discussing the very issue.

"I don't know," said a Taraakian. "The comms have been getting worse and worse for the past few days. I thought I was the only person who noticed it."

"I noticed it too," said a Mejerian. "We sent some messages to several of our relays to figure out what's going on, but none of them had reported back."

"My Sergeant just told me those Earth men planetside sent a couple of their crew over to help speed up things."

"Sometimes you women just gotta step out of the way and let the men take care of things," another Taraakian joked.

"Yeah right. But honestly, I would trust one of you Taraakians to do it before I would trust one of those Earthborns."

Bart shut off the comm and rolled his eyes. "At least we're starting to get along better."

* * *

"For fuck's sake, how hard is it to pick up a phone?" Marcus cursed as he stepped out of the transport's cockpit.

"You know these futuristic types. Manual labor is outdated. I bet these idiots are waiting for some machine to pick up the line for them," OJ said with a chuckle. The way the sharpshooter held his PR-20L told Marcus that the man didn't believe that at all.

Marcus had brought a squad of Mejerian Guard with him and OJ to check out the nearest comm station. He insisted on bringing more in case things got intense, but the Captain didn't want to get people on edge for nothing. Deep in Marcus' gut, he knew that would come back to bite them in the ass.

"I've got sight of the dish, Sergeant! ETA five minutes!" the pilot called out.

"About damn time, Vikki!" OJ said as he stood up. Marcus leaned over to grab the weapon at his side when a voice called out to him.

"Hey, Sergeant!"

The squad of women was closely packed together on the opposite side of the cabin. The entire ride, they had been talking with hushed tones, throwing looks in Marcus' and OJ's directions. It wasn't exactly hard to figure out they didn't care for their new commanding officers much.

"How long have you been in cryo?" one of them asked. The woman in particular seemed taller than the others with darker skin. It was easy to tell she didn't grow up in one of the orbital living units above the female planet. Mejerians living planetside had more time in the sun than their spacefaring counterparts. They were also a bit more hostile towards outsiders than them as it turned out. The name on her collar read, "Celia."

"Yeah, I heard you guys were under for like 200 years," said another.

Rolling his eyes as if he knew where they were going with their questions, the Sergeant told them, "150 years. Why?"

"That's kind of a long time, even for an ice sleep. Are you sure everything is still working right?"

_Don't even go there, kid._

"Don't know. Why don't you ask our scaly friends in space? I'm sure they can give a better assessment."

The woman chuckled, replying, "Yeah, I'd rather put a bullet in their heads. Earthlings aren't worth anymore of my time." She couldn't have made it clearer that Marcus and OJ were included on her shit list. The Mejerians turned away from the Sergeant and went on with their private conversation.

"Sarge, we're not getting any responses back from the relay!" OJ called out.

"Are you picking up anything at all?" Marcus kept his hand on the overhead railings as he made his way to the front of the ship.

"The station looks live, but there's no movement or comms; short range or otherwise."

With the trees out of the way, Marcus was able to get a good look at the facility. There were a few short range transports and a single aircraft on top of the station's landing pad, but there weren't any people around. The main structure was in the shadow of a larger tower that held up the comms dish.

"Circle around once more then put us down in the courtyard," Marcus ordered the woman with the name Victoria on her collar. He leaned back into the cabin and shouted to the others, "Ready up. We're setting down."

With an unenthusiastic, "Yes, sir," the women got up to get ready. They had barely moved when an overhead beeping froze everyone in their tracks.

"Missile lock! Incoming!" the pilot shrieked.

"Oh shit!" OJ grabbed a hold of the cargo netting next to him. In that brief moment, a grimace managed to find its way onto Marcus' face.

_God I hate the future._

Fire exploded into the cabin as the missile connected with the transport's starboard engine. The Sergeant tried to keep his footing as the ship began its uncontrollable clockwise spin. As the right engine lost power, the ship began to roll over in midair. His vision was obscured by a blur of reds and oranges with the tingly sensation of flash burn covering the side of his body. The fire quickly cleared as the view of the sky through the breach quickly turned into a view of the ground rushing upwards. His gut instinct was to shout, "Hold on!" but he already knew everyone was clinging to something the whole way down.

The last thing he remembered was hearing OJ muttering, "This is going to hurt like hell."

_No shit._

* * *

There was something especially pleasant about walking through empty hallways. Growing up around crowds of warriors meant that there wasn't any chance of finding solitude. The only time Scyle had found time alone in the past few years was in the air ducts and occasional maintenance corridors of various starships in the loyalist fleet. It was the peace and quiet that made walking though the white halls of the _Nirvana_ enjoyable.

The Commander had a case in each hand as he made his way from the hangar to the infirmary. He promised Captain Magno that he'd bring more medical supplies to help out the doctor whenever he could. Downtime would be hard to come by, but the Commander was never one to forget a promise.

_Shadow Killer_ was still on standby with weapons primed for immediate engagement if another attack came. The _Nirvana_ may be stationed away from "The Line" for the time being, but the E-Humans were still able to attack anywhere they wanted. Thankfully, it appeared the loyalists were too afraid to make any sudden moves against the Alliance for the time being. Hibiki's recent combat record probably has a lot of higher ups rethinking their strategies.

After retracing his steps from the last time he was here, Scyle found his way to the medical wing. The doors slid open for him and he took only a single step forward. A startling shriek then filled the air causing the E-Human to recoil back into the hall and nearly drop the cases. After hearing a thump he looked down to the floor to see where the high pitched noise came from. A little girl had fallen backwards and was staring up at him now with a look of horror on her face. The Commander knew he'd seen her before, but he didn't remember the little brunette's name. Not wanting to seem rude for scaring the girl, he dropped one of the cases to hold out a hand.

"Here, I'm so-," was all he managed to say before the girl began screaming again.

"Duelo! Duelo help me!"

Scyle retracted his hand immediately, unsure of what to do or say next. The doctor in question burst into the room looking around, hands balled into fists and ready to fight. At first he appeared surprised to see Scyle, but after a moment, he seemed to remember who he was. "Paiway, calm down!" he shouted. When she didn't listen, he walked over and knelt in front of her. "Hey!" The girl suddenly quieted down as if she'd never heard the man yell before, only staring with widened eyes at Scyle. "This is Commander Scyle from _Shadow Killer_. He's been here before, remember?" She nodded, but her disposition didn't really change.

"I'm sorry. I kind of barged in here," Scyle said to try to calm little Paiway.

"Yeah…" was all she said back, not sounding at all convinced.

Duelo helped Paiway to her feet as the Commander brought the two cases in. "I hope we're not digging too much into your reserves for this," the doctor said as he inspected the new equipment.

"We've got plenty of these with no one to use them. You've all been in the thick of it while we've sat back and watched. This is the least I can do."

Duelo nodded, staring down at the open cases. "I don't suppose you have anything that can revive the deceased," he said.

"Sorry doctor, but even we wish we knew about that."

Duelo sighed, nodding in acceptance. "It doesn't hurt to hope." Grabbing a few supplies out of the case, he walked over to the emergency room saying, "Thanks for the help Commander."

"I'm sorry it's all I can do," Scyle responded, too low in tone for the doctor to hear.

"You did your best," a voice squeaked behind him. He had forgotten that the girl was still around. Paiway was still looking up at him with a noticeable unease in her movements, but she didn't look like she was staring at a ghost anymore. She moved her eyes away for a moment as she apologized. "Sorry for screaming at you."

_What's a little girl still doing up at this hour anyway?_

"No worries. Your response is completely understandable. You weren't hurt were you?"

Paiway chuckled, "Yeah right. I'm may not be as big as you but I'm still pretty tough."

"I believe you," Scyle said with a laugh. Seeing the girl smiling and laughing was a pleasant surprise. It was hard working with people who generally were afraid or outright hated him. He told himself and his men that it would get better at some point. But considering who they were fighting, they shouldn't expect the people of the Alliance Fleet to warm up to them anytime soon.

"Hey did you hear that?" Paiway asked. Scyle cocked his head to the side, unsure of what she meant. He would have said no if it weren't for the quakes that suddenly moved though the ship. Like a switch being flipped in his head, Scyle's mind reverted to combat mode.

"Stay here," he ordered the girl, moving her away from the door. It wasn't an explosion, he was sure of that. The tremor was definitely from an impact or collision. His first thought was to find a window to get a look outside. He dashed down the hall and around the corner while keeping a hand over the pistol holstered on his thigh.

_Not now. Not now…_

As soon as he got a view to the outside, he looked for the telltales signs of a hull breach. The station the _Nirvana_ was connected too seemed fine at first glance. Twirling bits of glass, however, caught his eye. The station was built into a small asteroid with only a few manmade parts visible. One of the catwalks far off into the distance was without light and seemed to be where the glass and debris originated from.

"Commander? What's going on?" Paiway asked.

Scyle searched the distant wreck for a second longer before turning towards the girl. "Get a hold of your helmsman and tell him to prep for takeoff. We may have to leave soon," he told as he drew his pistol. The girl was unmoving, either confused or frightened, or both. "Go Paiway!" Scyle barked before running past her.

Scyle's first thought was to get to the air lock and make sure nothing was coming for the _Nirvana_. "Commander to Vector 3, take off immediately and maintain a defensive orbit around this station, over."

"Yes, Commander. But what's going on?" the pilot asked.

"We may have a loyalist infiltration team on the station. If we have hostiles, make sure they don't get to the _Nirvana_. Keep them away at any cost."

"Yes sir!"

The airlock had a couple of security officers from both the _Nirvana_ and the Mejerian navy standing guard. They were standing around and from the look of them, probably wondering what was going on. Since none of them seemed intent on doing any real investigating, Scyle determined that he'd have to take command.

"What's going on? Didn't you hear that?" he asked them.

"Of course we did!" one responded as if she had been insulted.

"Then what the hell are you standing here for? Open the airlock. You two come with me. The rest of you stay here and seal it off when we're gone. Don't open it again unless I say so," he ordered. Without another word, they complied with the commands and moved out of the way.

Scyle and the two Mejerians ran down the exterior halls of glass and metal, looking out the windows at the other portions of the station that appeared to have gone dark. The UD-22 was moving along the asteroid with a spotlight fixed on the darkened sections. "Vector 3, do you have a read on what's going on?"

"I've got a single dropship sitting in the hull breach, Commander. Hostile numbers unknown."

"Keep an eye out. Open fire on anything as long as you don't put any allies at risk, copy?"

"Yes sir."

Scyle looked back to the Mejerians. "Sound the alarm. They're coming."

* * *

Someone was screaming. He couldn't tell who it was or what they were saying, but it was close. As the blackness faded, sound began to return.

"Sergeant! Sergeant goddammit, wake up!" The words were sounding clearer and clearer and soon Marcus realized a woman was positioned over him literally screaming in his face. A few flashes of light streaked over the woman's head with a couple of pulses hitting the dangling damaged portions of the ship above. Someone else was shouting nearby and there were nearby gunshots. The only male voice was obviously OJ's.

"Sergeant we have contact dammit! Wake the fuck up!" the tanned woman positioned over Marcus shouted again.

"Yeah I noticed," he muttered as he rolled over to put his hands underneath himself.

"Come on Ghost Wolf! The lizards are closing in on all sides! We're gonna die here if we don't do something!" Unable to take anymore attitude from the woman, Marcus grabbed her by the throat and pulled her close.

"Then why the fuck are you talking to me? Shoot back goddammit!" With that, he shoved the woman back and drew the pistol at his side. The woman was still lying on the floor in shock when the Sergeant moved up to get a shot at the enemy.

There were plenty of rocks and overturned trees between the survivors and the E-Humans, so finding a spot to shoot from wouldn't be an issue. "OJ how many are there?" Marcus called out as he tried to get a fix on something to shoot at, the effects from his blackout still affecting his senses. OJ was further ahead behind a boulder and splintered tree. Keeping low, Marcus scurried over to him.

"At least thirty. The bastards are much faster in the open than we thought. Definitely Spec Ops."

"How many of us are there?" Marcus spoke as he fired at a blur in the trees ahead.

"Don't know. I think Celia and Miyamoto are in the best condition. The others are roughed up, but they're good enough to fight. The pilot's got a busted leg so we'll need to carry her."

"Right side!" Marcus called out as a pair of figures moved towards them. OJ peeked out of cover and fired off five shots. A few more were moving from the left in a pincer move. Marcus fired on them as best as he could from his position until a few more shots rang out from behind him.

"Williams, take the left! Simone, watch the rear and make sure they're not flanking us. Miyamoto get ready to move Victoria on the Sergeant's order!" Celia, the tanned girl from before, hopped out of the wreck with her squad mates, forming up behind Marcus and OJ. "Where to Sergeant?" she asked, taking aim at the direction the E-Humans were pushing in from.

_Now we're good to go._

"We can't stay here and hope for back up. The only way we can get a message out is by getting to that compound." Marcus eyed the large metal dish that towered over the treetops. About a platoon or so of Spec Ops were between them and the relay, not an obstacle Marcus was particularly keen on tackling. Lances of energy were coating the opposite side of the rocks the Ghost Wolves and Mejerians hid behind. The shadows in the distance were moving to flank, there was no question about that.

"Celia, set some explosives in the hold, as close to the fuel tanks as possible. Tell Simone to gather any smoke grenades and flares she can find in there."

The Mejerian nodded with a, "Yes sir!" before heading back into the wrecked transport.

"What do you have in mind?" OJ asked, keeping a steady stream of plasma focused on the trees. Branches and low foliage caught fire from the shootout. Flames were growing on the branches a few feet away from the Ghost Wolves.

"We're gonna push right through them. Take Victoria and get ready to move. Williams! How's the left look?"

The woman was trading fire with unseen enemies, shouting, "Crowded sir!"

A few tense moments of suppressing fire later, Simone and Celia returned. Simone dropped a duffle bag against the rocks and began tossing grenades out to everyone. "Got a couple of thermite charges sitting in there, primed and ready to blow," Celia told, handing the detonator to Marcus. OJ was right behind him with the pilot on his back.

"We're going straight down the middle. Throw the smokes first, then flares. Simone, you're in charge of the detonator. Wait until we're right on their asses before you set off the charges. Everyone stay low and move fast. We have to get a signal out to the fleet." Everyone acknowledged the order, bracing themselves for the run. Balancing his weight on the tips of his toes, Marcus activated the first smoke grenade. Following his lead, Celia and the other remaining members of the squad primed their grenades and tossed them at the approaching E-Humans. Marcus made sure to aim for the more exposed areas to obscure the E-Humans' view of where the squad was moving. White smoke filled the air quickly, rising up to the tops of the trees in seconds.

"Here we go ladies!" OJ yelled out as he sprung out from behind cover.

Marcus vaulted over the boulder, activating another grenade as soon as his feet hit the dirt on the other side. Going off of memory, he tossed the frag in the direction he last saw a group of enemies. A hiss came from beside him as flares lit up. A bright red glow in the haze around him soared up into the air and disappeared as it arced back to the earth. With a hand out in front, Marcus pushed his way through the burning bushes and ferns. He heard twigs snapping and rustling leaves in all directions as well as orders being shouted out by the E-Humans that hadn't figured out what was going on. He felt the presence of his other squad members right on his tail, hoping they weren't running directly into the path of a Spec Op warrior. Marcus already knew he wouldn't have such luck.

In a split second, he made out the form of something moving towards him. Without hesitation, he fired two shots into the E-Human and lowered his shoulder to ram it. The injured beast was knocked aside with ease, but the impact against solid armor was enough to knock the wind out of Marcus' lungs. Stumbling to the floor, he rolled into the fall, getting back up onto his feet before he lost distance. Nearby E-Humans must have heard the commotion because shouts started echoing through the air. A second later, plasma was being flung blindly around the forest. The Sergeant could have sworn he heard OJ cursing in annoyance amidst the streaks of energy. "Hit it Simone!" the Sergeant shouted out over the weapons fire.

The following blast sent a concussion through the forest that pushed the smoke outward and away from the destroyed transport. The cloud of cover kept the squad concealed as they moved closer to the comm relay. Almost a hundred meters away, the heat from the blast could still be felt. The plasma being directed at Marcus and his team lessened, but didn't stop. The whine of engines could be heard overhead, a sign that the E-Humans called in their air support. No doubt there were sharpshooters hanging out the back of the overhead Chaos drawing a bead on the smoky burning forest below.

"Sarge we're almost there!" OJ shouted out from up ahead. In a few more strides, the cloud was beginning to thin out. He could make out OJ hobbling forward with the pilot still on his back.

_We're running out of time. Hurry the fuck up!_

The grass stopped up ahead and turned to concrete with a short drop onto pavement. Marcus hurried up to get down and help OJ with Victoria. "Celia, get to the comm room, we'll be right behind you!" OJ shouted to the Private as she emerged from the thinning smoke.

"Where are the others?" she asked, jumping down to the driveway.

"Don't worry about them, just go!" Marcus told. He took the pilot's arm around his shoulders as OJ helped her down. The short drop was still enough to make her cry out in pain.

"Shit!" OJ cried out, taking aim over Marcus' shoulder. The close burst of plasma burned like someone jabbed him with a flatiron. "Go, I got your back!" the marksman told as he fired at the pursuers. Marcus didn't bother looking back, but rushed the pilot and himself along the driveway into the central courtyard of the structure.

"Which way?" he asked the hyperventilating woman.

"Straight ahead into the main building. Top floor," she grunted. The whirring of engines brought their attention back to the sky. Before they could be spotted, Marcus shuffled himself and the pilot against the wall in the shadows. It didn't matter if the Chaos spotted them; there wasn't a way for the shooters hanging out the back to get a shot at them. Too bad dodging the dropship wasn't the only problem they had to worry about.

"Can we get to the landing pad from the main building?" he asked as he moved along the wall towards the entrance.

"We should be. We won't be able to go anywhere with that thing up there, though." Celia had left the doorway open, making for a quick ascent up the small set of stairs and into the building.

The first thing Marcus noticed were bodies on the floor of the lobby. As best as he could tell, they were all killed fairly recently. There was still a stench of burning flesh in the air and the burn marks from the wounds were still simmering. There were about five of them slumped against walls and lying on the ground. They all looked as if they had been hit before they knew there was an attack. As the two shuffled their way through the halls, it became clearer that some of them had figured out what was going on before they were struck down.

The two soldiers managed to get into the elevator when a voice called out, "Marcus!" Just before the elevator shut, OJ squeezed between the doors to join his team.

"Holy shit," he groaned as he caught his breath. "Now that was a workout," he chuckled as they passed the second floor.

"They're all coming this way?" Marcus asked unnecessarily.

Patting little embers on his clothes, OJ said, "Oh yeah. Took a couple down, but these guys are quick."

"Not quicker than us it looks," told Marcus. "We have to take down that dropship and pull out before another ship comes around."

With a smirk, OJ replied, "I'll keep an eye on that fucker. Just get the word out."

Upon reaching the third floor, OJ ran off to the roof. Marcus and the pilot moved on down the hall and entered a large dark room filled with computers. Stepping past more corpses, Marcus found a spot to set the woman down so he could check on Celia. Putting the plasma pistol in her hands, he told her, "Keep an eye on the door."

As he walked away, he managed to hear Victoria grunt, "Thanks Sarge."

The Sergeant moved towards the silhouette on the opposite side of the room. "You got a signal yet?" he asked.

"They shut down a bunch of stuff. I've been booting everything back up, but I'm not good with computers so I don't know how long it'll take."

Marcus leaned back from the computer in front of them to figure out what to do. When it came to electronics, he wasn't the one to talk to either. The best he figured was that all the main systems needed to be activated. Spotting a black box with a single glowing red light in its center underneath the desk, Marcus asked, "How about this thing?" He knelt down to get a good look at it. His hands touched it for a second before he realized what he was touching. "Shit!" he exclaimed as he backed away from it.

OJ burst into the room at that moment. "The Chaos is setting down and the lizards are falling back. I think we're in trouble."

"No shit! Get Vikki and get the fuck out of here!" Marcus barked, pulling Celia away from the computer.

"Sir, wait! The systems are ready! Look!" she protested, pointing back at the computer.

"Go, I got it!" Marcus shoved the woman away, knowing time was up. He hopped over the bodies and rows of computers to get to the main comm unit in front of the massive computer screens. Basic knowledge of comms was all he needed to activate the receiver to send out a message.

Just before he spoke into the unit, a voice came through the speakers. "- station Two-Three? Relay Station Two-Three, your signal's weak but we're picking up on you now. Captain…"

Marcus grabbed the mic and only shouted one thing into it before bolting for the door.

The hallway was a blur as he pumped his legs and leaned into his sprint. The engines of the transport were warming up by the sound of it. He burst out of the building and jumped the railing of the metal stairs, landing on the sleek plating of the roof. The E-Human dropship was lifting into the air just on the other end of the compound. OJ and Celia were shouting for the Sergeant to get a move on. Pushing off the ground with all his strength, the Ghost Wolf darted across the roof to the landing pad. The transport was lifting upwards, maintaining a low hover. Leaping up the stairs two at a time, Marcus jumped into the open side hatch of the ship just as it began to pull up. No one managed to shout for Victoria to fly away faster before the charges went off.

The top floor of the main structure was the first to burst open in a bluish ball of flame. Small manageable chunks of debris smacked against the side of the transport as it pulled higher and higher. The dish that towered over the main building exploded at its base, forcing the building to topple towards the landing pad. Marcus kept his feet planted on either side of the short hatchway to keep from sliding out as the pilot jerked the ship to its side to avoid being hit. More explosions underneath the ship sent shrapnel and hunks of concrete up into the underbelly of the pale red ship. The building collapsed under the explosions with the falling tower mixing into the carnage.

"That wasn't so bad. Right Sarge?" Celia forced a laugh before Marcus interrupted her, anxious to get away as soon as possible.

"That's just the first stage. Vikki, gun it!"

The secondary explosives for the plasmite bombs detonated with a white hot glow. The heat hit Marcus before the shockwave did. The secondary explosions tore the rest of the relay station apart, forcing debris both manmade and natural in every direction. Marcus hung on as hard as his hands would allow to the railing by the door. The second shock slammed into the transport hard, forcing the off center ship to nearly roll over in midair. OJ and Celia were clinging to what they could as the shift in the ship's orientation forced their feet off the floor. Marcus expected the shuttle to roll over completely as he eyed the bright light peeking through the doorway. His stomach churning told him they were going down again, making him prepare for another, more lethal impact. Without warning, they were all thrown against the floor of the ship then backward towards the rear. The inertia from the sudden acceleration kept the three pinned against the back wall as Victoria jetted the ship away.

Wide-eyed, shirt wet with sweat and back flat against the wall, Marcus tried to get a grip on what just happened in the last few minutes. He was surprised he was still alive. Mouth agape, he looked to OJ and Celia, who looked back at him equally stunned.

Letting his head hit the wall with a thud, OJ stated, "Now that wasn't so bad." The marksman went back to staring ahead to catch his breath. Marcus couldn't blame him. His own heart was beating a mile a minute, with no chance of stopping. Considering what just happened there wasn't a chance of that happening any time soon. He was relieved for a moment that the four of them made it out of the relay alive, but he was now troubled about the new situation. The Earth Grand Fleet was on Mejere and they had taken out comms relays all over the planet. As it would turn out, today was the only easy day they would get.

"Victoria?" he called out.

"Yes Sergeant?" she shouted back in an equally strained voice.

"You know where to take us. Make it double time."


	15. Nightlife

They may have worn Spec Ops attire and they may have been attempting something that only elite operatives would dare attempt, but these people were not Spec Ops.

Scyle and the growing band of Mejerian security personnel were pushing back the loyalist invaders much easier than they should have been. They were making mistakes elite warriors wouldn't make and they were retreating like gangsters from police sirens. There was no chance for them to succeed and Scyle was sure whoever authorized this mission knew this as well. The Commander sniffed out the diversionary assault before the enemy realized they were doomed. Alliance warships were already moving in to counter an attack that wasn't coming, drawing forces away from other areas of the defensive line. As soon as he dealt with the breach on the station, he'd have to get Command to rescind their orders.

"Control, seal off section B-3. I want to take one of them alive," Scyle ordered as he and the Mejerians pursued the infiltrators. He and his allies had been able to keep the loyalists on the outer walkways of the station. He was willing to bet they weren't equipped to breach any sealed doors. Cornering them should be easy as long as the females weren't feeling too vengeful.

The spotlight from Vector 3 swooped through the windows and moved ahead to follow the enemies up front. "Blast doors are sealed, Commander. They're trapped," the pilot informed.

"Hold!" Scyle held a fist up to stop the women. "Hold this position. If anyone comes out without me, kill them."

He jogged up to the next hatchway, taking cover behind the door's emergency control panel. He peeked out for a second to see just how many were left. About seven of them were positioned with their weapons aimed in his direction. Thankfully they weren't dumb enough to start firing everywhere at random. Scyle didn't feel like getting sucked out into the vacuum of space tonight. "End of the line, gentlemen! Put down your weapons!"

"Fuck you traitor! Come get us!"

The women were inching up with their weapons ready. Scyle waved for them to get back, knowing their patience was running out. "There are a few dozen units out here and a dropship locked onto you! Trust me, if I let them, they will tear you apart before you get a shot off!"

"Keep talking, you're going to die whether or not we live! You all know it!"

_The dumb bastards are going to make me kill them._

"Commander!" one of the women called out. Glancing back, he realized it was Meia who called out to him. Pushing past the armed guards, she formed up behind Scyle with an electro staff in her hands. She must have been asleep until recently because she was wearing a short white night gown with no shoes on. "Looks like you can use some help." She said, taking a peek into the next hallway.

"You're going to need more than a stun rod if you're going to take them down."

"You want to take one alive don't you?" she replied, holding out a fist sized disc.

"What is it?" Scyle asked, taking a look at the white device.

"It's what you would call a flashbang grenade. Ours don't require a concussive force or massive detonation so we can use them in places like this," the Squadron Leader explained, motioning towards the walls of glass. "I'll take one down for interrogation. You handle the rest."

"You sure about that?" Scyle asked, admiring her initiative.

"Positive."

Scyle hit the button and flung the disc into the room. A second later, there was a loud bang followed by a lot of screaming. Scyle whipped around the corner to see the E-Humans were all blindly stumbling around. With their ears and eyes completely useless, he had no trouble dropping five of the warriors. One trigger squeeze for each of them was all that was necessary. Meia flew past the Commander and leapt onto the warrior that was still standing, connecting with her knees against his chest. The E-Human toppled backwards from the tackle with Meia still on top. The warrior's back hit the ground with a loud metallic clang. Meia immediately jammed the electro staff against the warrior's neck and gave him a three second shock to stop his movements.

Impressed by the takedown, all Scyle could manage to say was, "Damn." The seventh loyalist was crawling away in a daze, growling as he clawed his way across the reflective white floor. The Commander ran up and kicked him square in the back, following up with a heavy jab to the back of his head with the stock of the Plasma Repeater. "Control, we got them," he reported as the security teams came rushing in with guns at the ready.

Scyle stepped back from the unconscious warrior so that the others could restrain him and the other that Meia knocked out. "Some wakeup call, huh?" Meia sighed.

"Yeah…" The Commander suddenly found himself staring at her exposed legs. He wouldn't say it aloud but she definitely had a great body. "Some combat attire you got there," he commented before she noticed him staring. The Squadron Leader looked down at her clothes as if she didn't know what she was wearing. In the bright lighting, Scyle could practically see through the thin material.

"It was a last minute choice," the woman said while her face turned red.

"You just took down an armored warrior almost twice your size with almost nothing on. I'm just glad I'm on the right team."

"Commander Scyle, Command just radioed in. They're redirecting more ships to this sector in case the Earth Fleet attacks with a larger force," a Guardswoman informed.

"Where's the comm room?" Scyle asked.

"This way, sir," the woman led the Commander away.

"What's on your mind?" Meia asked as she followed.

"What kind of warriors do these men look like?" Scyle asked.

"They wore Special Operations attire like we've seen in the data Captain Citadel gave to us. But they didn't seem to act like Special Operations."

"They were pulling our attention this way knowing we'd mistake them to be more threatening than they were. What do you think Ms. Gisborn? Do you think an attack by single squad of regulars pretending to be Special Forces is a precursor to an assault?"

"Yes," she replied. "But not in the same area. It seems like they're trying to pull our attention away." The Squadron Leader was particularly more perceptive than most of the colonial humans, another trait about the blue haired girl he admired.

"My thoughts exactly. I bet the long range comms disruptions we've been having lately have something to do with this," he told her.

The hallways were filled with Guardswomen and security as the high alert status spread through the adjacent ships. Continuing his conversation with the Squadron Leader, Scyle said, "This is what they want. They made it look like they were trying for the _Nirvana_."

"Do you think they're planning a move on the opposite side of the planet? Maybe even Taraak?"

"They don't have anything to gain from invading the male homeworld. With the way comms have been acting, I wouldn't be surprised if Zeeron moved his forces already. He has a good portion of his fleet staring us down, but the rest of them are out of the system. He could have moved them all already and we wouldn't know it."

Meia stopped in her tracks, grabbing the Commander's wrist. "Come with me." She began leading him back to where they came from, but this time heading back to the _Nirvana_. "The Captain will need to be in the know if we're going to start planning our next move. We don't want to make a wrong turn if there's an imminent attack elsewhere."

Amidst the growing crowd of Mejerians, Scyle couldn't help but look through the glass walls at the planet outside. The starships in the immediate area were seeing life as more and more of them began moving back into combat formations. There didn't seem to be an immediate threat to the bright blue planet below or to Taraak next to it. He was about to refocus on looking where he was walking when a streak of light caught his eye.

A line of light that seemed no larger than a strand of hair peeked out from behind the planet's atmospheric glow. He put a hand on Meia's shoulder as he stopped, moving closer to the glass as he searched for it again. "Commander?" she said. Not taking his eyes away from the sight, Scyle waited until he saw another. It seemed to originate from the other side of Mejere. The trajectory was slightly different, but he could tell it came from the part of Mejere currently under the night sky. He didn't have to see the third to know there was a battle going on where no one else in the fleet could see.

"Commander, what's wrong?" Meia said in a firmer voice, giving the distracted E-Human an impatient shove. The smaller humans probably haven't noticed the distant plasma streaks due to their less developed eyesight.

"We're leaving now," he told the SL as he took lead.

"Yes I know; we need to talk to the Captain, remember?"

"No," the E-Human corrected. "We're leaving for the other end of your world. Right now."

By the time the two of them reached the airlock, more of the Alliance ships that were previously docked with the station had left and moved into battle formations. "I doubt the fleet will want to move from here after that attempt on our ship," Meia thought.

"True, but they'll have to take my word for it. Zeeron wants us looking this way while he rips the planet out from underneath. I did the same thing to Cerulea," Scyle told. Even out of the corner of his eye, he could tell those words made the SL uncomfortable just by how she glanced at him. "Vector 3, head back to _Shadow Killer_. Tell the XO they're to depart for the dark side of Mejere and prepare for hard contact."

Walking into the _Nirvana_, Scyle told Meia, "I'm heading for the bridge right now." Looking down at the thin layer of white silk the Squadron Leader wore, he advised, "You better get into your usual combat gear."

"I hope you're wrong about this, Commander," Meia told as she walked away.

"I wish I was," the E-Human sighed before heading down the crammed hall in the opposite direction.

* * *

Streaks of orange light filled the skies above. There were hundreds of dropships tearing through the atmosphere over the city of Valentine. If there weren't explosions and streaks of plasma lining the air, those lights could have easily been mistaken for a meteor shower. Mejerian AA/S weaponry desperately tried to pick off the incoming starships, but there were way too many descending from above the cloudless sky to be stopped. This underequipped city was doomed to fall by dawn.

Explosions above the atmosphere appeared like blossoming flowers in a sparkling sea of black. A cannon boomed behind the Commander and rockets whipped overhead. The warheads arced downward and detonated amongst a row of buildings. The ground shuddered as a Vanguard fireteam ran past with a squad of warriors. Further off in the distance, lights flickered rapidly with lines of plasma and tracers moving back and forth between the defenders of the city and the forest from where Prowl's people came from. A trio of explosions ripped through the far side of the city where the fighting was the most intense. Based on his orders, the majority of the UD-22s were dropping infantry over there. The Mejerians had moved all of their forces to combat them and were now wide open for the assault that came from the west.

Prowl looked to the men at his side, signaling them to follow. They headed down the grassy moonlit hill with nothing but air between them and the steel and glass towers. Within hours of Operation Black Veil's completion, 6th and 7th Fleets jumped into the system and engaged the thinly stretched Alliance forces in orbit. The Commander and his Spec Ops had watched from the ground as the two massive fleets tore right through the isolated forces and began deploying troops.

More rockets soared high up above the treetops and struck one of the higher buildings. The tower of metal came down with glass sparkling amongst the falling debris like glitter. None of the defensive fire was directed towards the Commander and his approaching armored company. Rockets that were zeroed in on the city were ready to hit any new targets that may present themselves. Of course, they were ordered to keep hitting Mejerians at random locations until given specific orders, so they didn't really have to worry about any new targets. Chances are they were already destroyed.

Grass turned to concrete as the forces transitioned from the wild to the city limits. One last barrage of rockets from behind struck further ahead to disrupt any forces that may be waiting ahead. Smoke and fire rose up over the buildings ahead, overtaking the screams that were echoing through the streets just moments before. Embers were blowing through the air from the burning buildings and cars on the streets. There were bodies lying all over the place with even a few survivors still trying to crawl away. Once pristine streets and buildings were now burning and in ruins. The inhabitants of this city didn't have any chance of escaping the onslaught. Prowl wanted the see the expressions on the females' faces as they are overrun by his Spec Ops. The warriors started breaking off into smaller teams and entered the buildings around them to begin clearing them out. Muffled Plasma Repeater fire could barely be heard over the sound of wailing rockets and explosions. Others fired on women who were still alive in this section.

The Commander and his fireteam passed into an alley on their way through the enemy city. A loud thumping and a flashing light up ahead prompted him to slow his advance. Staying in the darkened alley, he peeked out to see handful of Mejerian Guard. One was keeping watch on an automated AA/S turret while the others were directing civilians away from the direction they thought the Earth forces were coming. The turret wasn't a heavy duty model like the ones that line the ships of the False Humans and their more heavily fortified locations. This automated model was meant for mobile use as made apparent by its automobile-like design. Once more, it wasn't armored enough to warrant using any explosives. It filled the air with streaks of blue light but hit nothing. Prowl looked back and gestured his next orders. After getting acknowledgement, he emerged from the shadows and fired at the AA/S technician and then the turret itself. As the Guardswomen realized they were being flanked, they were hit by Prowl's subordinates. As for the turret, the PR-20 made quick work of the unarmored machine and melted it inside and out. After a few shots, the turret stopped firing.

More warriors emerged from adjacent streets and alleyways and moved onward into the slaughter. As some continued deeper into the city, others began opening fire on the civilians that had been grouping up in this area. While the rest of the men dealt with any opposition and the civilians, Prowl would continue on and take out the turrets that inconvenienced the ships above. Looking for the nearest tracers reaching up to the stars, he found his next target and prompted his men to follow.

Artillery and rocket support had ceased fire on this half of the city as it was swarmed by Zeeron's finest and Vanguards. To let the nearby Chaos dropships know where the safe landing zones were, the ground forces set off smoke grenades with beacons built into them wherever an Anti-Air/Ship turret was destroyed. One of the nearby squads did just that, tossing the device against the wrecked turret. The green smoke rose quickly into the air as the warriors took up positions to keep the area secure for the incoming support. There were about a dozen of these sites still left as it seemed, so Prowl kept his pace and led the fireteam through the next ruined building.

* * *

"All hands accounted for. Disengaging docking clamps, Captain," reported Belvedere.

"Get us a good distance away from the station, Bart. We wouldn't want to take a piece of it with us when we leave," told the E-Human Commander next to Magno.

"Aye, ma'am. I mean sir," Bart corrected himself. He found it amazing he had a hard time remembering to say "sir" as opposed to when he first got used to saying "ma'am" a year ago.

_I've been on this ship too damn long._

As he guided the _Nirvana_ away from the space station, transmissions from Hibiki and the other commanding pilots came up on little screens around him. "Captain, Dread teams are all set up back here," Meia told.

"And the rest of you?" Buzam asked, directing her question at the commanding officers.

"Ready to rock, Commander," Hibiki said.

"Same here, Commander," Dita added.

"I'm prepped for combat, Commander. But I wish I knew who we're going to fight in the middle of this mess," Jura said.

That's what had been on Bart's mind during all of this. The ship had suddenly gone on full alert and everyone barged into the room talking about an attack on the station just a few minutes ago. Then Scyle showed up telling the Captain that they had to leave for the other side of the planet as soon as possible. It was times like these Bart wished he was more aware of his surroundings. At the very least, he didn't like being the last to find out about something big.

"We're getting ready to jump to the other side of the planet," Scyle told. "Alliance forces are engaged with an unknown number of Earth ships just around the corner. My guess is they're trying to get their landing forces in while the rest of the fleet is looking in another direction. If my guess is correct, then we can expect a large portion of the enemy fleet waiting for us."

Barnette shook her head, saying, "With all due respect Commander Scyle, how do you know this? How come no one else is picking up anything?"

"Comms are seriously messed up. Maybe they can't get a signal across," Valore reminded.

"We shared the same conclusion," Scyle told. "I'm willing to bet that they somehow got to your comm arrays and disabled them. Any ships close enough to see the battle probably can't reach us and went on to engage alone."

"Couldn't people on Taraak see if there was something going on?" Bart asked.

"Again, their transmissions would have to go through the Mejerian relays to reach us."

"I've heard enough. Bart, just get us over there," Hibiki told.

_I wish it was that easy_.

Bart honestly didn't know how the ABH drive worked from his position. The last two times it was used, the Paksis moved the ship on its own. Last he checked, he hadn't seen any controls for it around him. He guided the ship a safe distance away from the adjacent Alliance ships as he took a look around for something that may have looked like a teleporting, black hole, travel button or icon thingy. Searching carefully for something to help him out, an image of an E-Human suddenly appeared in front of him startling him enough to make him yelp.

"Commander, we're prepped for departure," the warrior told.

"Get going. We'll get there before you," told Scyle. This made Bart search faster as he wasn't too keen on disappointing the intimidating E-Human Commander or his own commanding officers.

"Bart this should be enough. Take us out," Rebecca informed.

"Yeah, uh... Give me a sec," he answered back.

_What the fuck? Where is this damn thing?_

"Bart we don't have time to screw around. Get us out of here!" Hibiki told.

"Do you want to help me find the damn button to make this thing jump?"

"What, you lost a button?" Barnette accused.

"How the hell does that happen?" Jura said, sitting back with her arms folded in disbelief.

Bart quickly told them, "Just shut up a second. I didn't lose anything. It's just that I've never seen anything new here after the Paksis' transformation. It's gotta be around here, though."

In a lower and slightly agitated tone, Scyle said, "We don't really have time for this. You should have had this sorted out by now."

"Dammit Bart. A command like that isn't something that would be hidden. The Paksis would have done something to make it easy to figure out, even for an idiot like you," Amarone groaned.

Amidst the complaints, more screens with nearby fleet Admirals appeared. "Captain Magno, why have you broken formation? We're to prepare for an imminent attack," a Taraakian told.

Magno filled them in, telling them, "We have very good reason to believe Mejere's being attacked where we can't see. It would explain why we're cutoff from the other portions of the fleet and why comms have been acting strange."

"They made an attempt on your vessel, Captain. They were obviously trying to clear you and Hibiki Tokai out of the way for a larger attack," another added.

"They sent grunts disguised as Special Ops to do something they couldn't possibly have finished," Scyle informed. "If I had time, I'd interrogate the two we caught and get them to tell you themselves, but I don't."

Bart searched the ships archives and command log to find how to start the ABH sequence, but still couldn't find anything. He couldn't believe that he was still unaware of how the ship completely worked even after all this time.

_You're screwing up again Bart! Figure it out, now!_

"It'll take us only a few minutes to check if there's really a fight going on. If we're wrong, we'll come right back. If we're right and you don't hear back from us, then send what you can to help out," Hibiki told. If they were to absolutely trust anyone's judgment, it would definitely be Hibiki's. Bart glanced at the Admirals, seeing how reluctant they were to let the _Nirvana_ out of their sights again.

"Ten minutes, Captain," the Melanic Admiral told. "If you're not back in ten minutes, we're going to assume you've made contact and we'll split off the fleet to aid you."

"Bart, come on! It has to be there!" Parfet said as she searched on her end.

"There's nothing! Nothing about how to control it or how to activate it!" Bart shouted back, on the verge of going mad.

"Come on, the clock is ticking!" Meia pressured. So many people were yelling for Bart to do something that he couldn't focus. His name was being called out by dozens of people and he didn't know what to say to them. They had a clear destination they needed to be at, but he had no means of getting there.

Filled with frustration and anger, Bart finally screamed out, "Just fucking move dammit!"

The starmap then appeared in front of Bart with the area he had imagined highlighted on the map. Before he could figure out what to do next, he felt energy surging though his body like a lightning bolt. His muscles contracted and his eyes bulged as a loud wailing filled the air. The veins in his body were becoming visible now as they shone white through his skin. Everything in front of him, all the starships and stars, began blurring as the intensity of their lights grew. Everyone's voices had been drowned out and their images had gone. The experience was surreal. It was then a familiar voice spoke to him.

"The system is ready, Bart. On your command."

The helmsman felt a presence behind him as if it were leaning to speak into his ear. Despite how hard he tried, he couldn't turn to see who it was. He was frozen in place in both fear and awe. "Initiate," he was able to say, too amazed by what was happening to say anything else. A hand then grasped his, one that felt cool yet filled with immense power.

"Sequence initiated," the woman who was now next to him spoke in her soft and calming voice. He could see her bluish hair waving at the corner of his eye. It was her, that woman from his dream. All the lights in front of him were pulled to the center of his vision in a split second, dropping everything, including him, into blackness. Despite being in what appeared to be absolute nothingness, Bart still felt his hand being held. He could not see anything or feel anything except the angelic woman's touch. Then everything rushed outward from the center of his vision as fast as it had gone. He was back inside the cockpit of the _Nirvana_ with all the familiar controls and holographic displays around him. But instead of staring at what he remembered seeing in front of him before, he was staring at something even scarier than what he just experienced.

The darkened half of Mejere had a few places filled with lights where large cities were located. Maybe there were more lights that he couldn't see because of what was directly in front of him. Thousands of E-Human warships were in obit over the female planet, looking as menacing as ever. The mass quantity of warships looked like a small veil over the planet. Lights were traveling between the large cruisers and battleships towards the surface. At the corners of the fleet, there appeared to be some resistance from Alliance vessels. As far as he could tell, the derelict ships tumbling around he and the E-Human fleet were what remained of the main defenses here.

Bart was so fixed on the sight that he didn't notice Magno's face on the screen in front of him, screaming for him to fire at the enemy. "Bart, did you hear me? Fire now!"

"I… I can't! There's so many of them!"

"Fire!" Scyle's voice roared from off-screen, causing even the Captain to jump. Without another thought, Bart locked onto as many ships as he could and fired away. He thought about how pissed off this attack was going to make all of the ships he was about to hit, regretting not focusing all his fire on much fewer ships to increase the probability of taking one out. To his surprise, instead of hitting shields, the plasma lances went straight through the backs of the starships like nothing was there. Hundreds of E-Human vessels exploded as their cores were struck by the unhindered plasma beams. The larger ships began shifting off balance as they lost their ability to control their orientation.

_Their shields are weaker in the rear? Oh yeah, they are! I knew that!_

The panic drained from him and was replaced with glee as Bart realized he had the drop on an entire fleet. And unlike all the ships in front of him, he could lock onto a hundred at a time. He readied another salvo as dozens of warships began rotating around to face the new threat. "Locked on. Fire!" he shouted. As he second barrage reached out to destroy the next group of ships, a pair of large green beams shot past the _Nirvana_ at the E-Human fleet. The twin beams tore through every ship in their path until they collided with a battleship. The following detonation forced all the crafts around the large starship off balance and even consumed a few of the ones that were too close. Vandread-Dita soared past the _Nirvana_ as it charged its shoulder cannons for another attack.

"Heads up Bart, you got a couple of 'em looking right at you now," Hibiki warned before firing at the next battleship he could see. The sea of fire that washed over the E-Human fleet must have sent shivers down the spines of everyone viewing the destruction being caused by two ships; it sure scared the hell out Bart. Of course, he knew he still had work to do. The _Nirvana_ accelerated forward as he began to lock onto the ships taking aim at him.

_Let's see who gets a shot off first, shall we?_

The radar warned of another ship coming up behind the _Nirvana_. The rear camera feed showed the battle-scarred _Shadow Killer_ drop into the area behind the _Nirvana_. "XO, follow the _Nirvana_'s lead. You know what to do," Scyle ordered. A slug from the cruiser fired past the _Nirvana_ into a frigate emerging from the destruction. It was around now Bart remembered there were still thousands more ships in front of him. His mind switched from offense to defense as he pushed the ship closer to the fleet. He released his third wave of plasma against the attacking ships just before giving the okay for the Dread teams to move out.

* * *

Vandread-Dita separated as the rest of the Dread teams closed in. Hibiki twisted his partner around and readied it as he saw Meia's fighter close in on him from the rear-view camera. Light consumed him and he was ready to move out again.

After combining, Meia told him, "We should focus our attacks on the smaller ships. Frigates and corvettes."

"Leave the big ones for the _Nirvana_?"

"Yeah. Bart can out maneuver them, but the smaller craft will be ours to deal with."

The Vandread bolted forward, whisking past the wreckage and looking for the closest operational starship. They ended up happening upon a trio of them. The frigate in front had a gash across the top of it. It was mostly intact, but damage like that meant its shields were down.

"Hit it," Hibiki said. Aiming directly for the vessel's damaged section. _White Wing_ pierced through the ship without having to accelerate as much as usual. The frigate split in half from the blow and the two pieces drifted apart helplessly. Taking care of these smaller E-Human ships wasn't going to take any effort on his and Meia's part. The enemy wasted ammo attempting to shoot the two of them down, but after only a few seconds, the two pilots had lined up behind their next target.

"Shields up," Meia confirmed before striking. A few more seconds later, another ship was left with its insides in pieces. The two of them were acting faster than their targets could react.

The clarity Hibiki felt when linked with Meia was like viewing the world in slow motion. While the two of them piloted the ship to get behind the third frigate, they were also taking note of the dozen or so warships headed their way. There were seven ships that met their criteria for destruction. They'd have to avoid the cruisers, but with _Shadow Killer_ taking shots at them through the debris, they wouldn't know who to retaliate against. The third frigate was now down and the two pilots were accelerating for the incoming group. Corvettes were the lightest of the E-Human Navy. Sure they were still pretty big in comparison to Alliance corvettes and frigates, but in terms of shields, they stood no chance against Vandread-Meia. Getting behind them to hit the weakest part of their shields wouldn't be necessary. The E-Humans fired at the two when they had already lined up three targets in a row for destruction. A slug slammed against the shields of one of the cruisers just as Hibiki and Meia attacked. White hot light turned to a passing view of wreckage and Mejere before the view went white again. The last ship in the line wasn't hit directly, but the blow was enough to tear a sizeable chunk off of the ship's rear end, disabling it at least so that it couldn't move to use its main guns.

In the rear-view, two of the ships began to turn in a feeble attempt to fight back. They were suddenly hit with missiles and plasma when the Dread teams caught up to the fight. Between the ruins ahead, streaks of plasma from another light barrage arched down into the E-Human ranks. Bright balls of flame peeked through the ruins moments afterwards. Judging by the amount of explosions and enemy fire being directed in that direction, it seemed the E-Humans had the _Nirvana_ zeroed in.

"I'm gonna need to do some crowd control," Hibiki told Meia. "Jura, ready to combine?"

"When you're ready," the blonde responded.

The Vanguard ejected from Meia's Dread as they accelerated in Jura's direction. The Dread teams were focused on taking down the battle group Meia and Hibiki had just weakened. As the Vanguard descended into the battle, Hibiki readied his energy sword. Using his momentum from the disconnect, he sliced down through Hydora fighters and Vanguards on his way towards his team. He readied another blade as a frigate drifted into his trajectory. He maneuvered his partner to smash right into the control bridge of the unknowing E-Humans. Stabbing the blades downwards for grip he went feet first into the ship and then sliced chunks of the metal out from under him. The frigate was starting to lean forward from the hit, which satisfied Hibiki enough to boost away.

"Come on already," Jura complained.

"Yeah, yeah, just wait a second," the Vanguard pilot said just as he adjusted course again. Passing through the light once more, the two now sat in _Red Claw_."Alright, let's give ourselves some elbow room. I've got the helm," Hibiki told, taking control of the ship's thrusters this time around. He may not have been as good a pilot as Jura was, but for the next attack, Jura was much better suited. The blonde powered up the refractive discs and kept them spinning around the Vandread facing outwards.

"Dread teams are out of the kill zone Jura. Let 'em rip," Barnette told, knowing already what maneuver the two were about to pull.

Staying directly below and above _Red Claw_, the Dread teams were safe from the halo of energy that was about to shoot outward from the ship. The discs were spinning so fast around the ship now that Hibiki couldn't even see them. They then unleashed continuous beams of green light all around. The two cruisers in the immediate vicinity were partially breached with thick lines along their sides from stern to bow. To get everything above and below, Jura began rotating the ring. The Dread teams were already moving in sync with the beams while the E-Human fighters and frigates attempted flee. More of the cruisers were melted away as the ring moved faster and faster.

"Slow down Jura, they can't move that fast," Hibiki warned.

"Alright, alright," she responded, staring at the screen and biting her lip like she always did when she was focused. After making a full 360 degree turn, the energy ring shut off. The ships that weren't completely eviscerated were left with semicircle-like cuts in their hulls just like the two cruisers to the sides of the Vandread. The Dread teams fanned out to finish them off while _Shadow Killer_ adjusted fire to the cruisers that hadn't been hit yet. Hibiki and Jura left them to do more damage to the ships approaching from beyond the field of destruction.

Jura controlled the directed energy beams like the rapier she trained with as they passed by incoming battle groups. Hibiki would get _Red Claw_ close, then Jura would carve away at the armor with the slightest movements of her fingers. The smaller ships ranged from being completely disintegrated to being cut in half from the energy that lashed out from the powerful cut horizontally through the side of one of the cruisers and hit the core along the way. The Vandread easily avoided the blast that followed, but the pursuing fighters weren't as lucky. Hydoras attempted to tail them but any that got too close were incinerated away without any thought. But, these smaller ships weren't the problem anymore.

From the intensity of the lances being directed their way, it seemed like half the E-Human fleet was pulling back to engage the _Nirvana_ and _Shadow Killer_. Their combined cannon fire ripped apart any partially destroyed ship in their path, even if they were on the same side. There was no way Vandread-Jura alone was going to hold back that many ships. Hibiki needed to keep their attention away from everyone else while dishing out enough damage to disrupt the so called "Grand Earth Fleet". Then the reinforcements would have a prime chance to strike back and deal a heavy blow to the invaders. Hibiki pulled the Vandread back to rendezvous with the rest of the Dread teams safely fighting further behind the _Nirvana_ and the Vandread. It was about time the Earth fleet was reacquainted with the Super Vandread.

"We have to combine all the Dreads. It'll keep these guys focused on us at least until the rest of the fleet shows up."

Jura scoffed. "That'll be a half an hour if they do send anyone."

"Then we'll see if we can at least scare these bastards away."

With a smile, Jura agreed. "Let's get it done."

The Vandread broke free from cover for a moment before a flash of light caught Hibiki's eye. He knew exactly what it was, but outside of Vandread-Meia, he didn't have the reflexes to evade it. The slug hit with such force that Hibiki's vision faded to black momentarily. His face slammed against the dashboard and he lost his grip of the controls. As the numbness slowly left his body, he looked up and realized he was separated from Jura. Her Dread tumbled end over end and bounced off of a wrecked corvette.

"Hibiki? Hibiki are you alright?" voices shouted over the comm.

"I'm good," he moaned, correcting his course to catch up with the red Dread up ahead. "Jura? Respond!"

She was clearly in pain as her image appeared in front of Hibiki, but she was responsive. "I'm in one piece," she groaned as she regained control of her ship.

"Dread teams, fall back to _Shadow Killer_, we'll try to push these guys back," Hibiki told. "Dita, Meia, are you ready to combine?"

"We might be a little weaker than usual," Jura said, hunched to the side in pain.

"We'll be quick. Line up," Meia told. Just beyond the cruisers in front of him, Hibiki could see hundreds more closing in. Good thing he wasn't claustrophobic. The Dread teams were pulling away, but they were going to need cover as they were pursued by many squadrons of E-Human fighters.

"Ready to connect," Hibiki told as the four ships neared.

"Ready," Jura and Dita confirmed.

"Here we go."

In an instant, Hibiki and the others were within their super weapon. Dita was strapped in the same way she would be if she were in Vandread-Dita. Her fingers were intertwined with his and were rested atop the spherical green controls for the Super Vandread. In the seats in front and behind them were Jura and Meia respectively. When the massive machine emerged from the combination, a burst of energy pushed outwards from it, pushing everything around it away. Shots from the cruisers bounced uselessly off of the mechanical humanoid's shields.

"Head straight down the center," Meia ordered. "Hit everything along the way."

_Don't need to tell me twice._

The Super Vandread charged forward through the incoming ships and only picked up speed along the way. The tinier vessels literally crumbled against the ivory machine's shields. They collided with a cruiser only to smash directly through the ship. Hibiki and Dita drew the machine's energy claymore for more reach and easier penetration. The enormous blade sliced through the larger ships effortlessly even with shields at full strength. Jura used the refractive discs as shields against the shots fired at them, managing to deflect energy back at the attackers. Hibiki dipped the machine's shoulder and rammed through another cruiser and slashed through the next.

With every impact, Jura noticeably winced. The impact from before must have hurt her more than Hibiki thought. "Jura, how are you holding up?" he shouted out over the noise.

"Not so good. I'm pretty sure I broke a rib," she grunted. Hibiki leaned to the side to see her better. As it turned out, her side was completely bruised.

"Meia, Jura's pretty banged up!" Dita told.

"Hang on a little longer, Jura. I'm firing up the boosters," the squadron leader ordered.

A pair of wings unfolded out from the Super Vandread's back. On the Heads-Up-Display, Meia plotted out a course leading straight up to a battleship. Directing all power to the engines, the energy claymore retracted. The Super Vandread lurched forward as the boosters nearly tripled the ship's speed in a moment. Everything in its path disintegrated against the shields without slowing the super weapon. Some of the ships up ahead were starting the pull away while others desperately tried gunning the dreadnought down.

Hibiki relished the power at his fingertips. Zeeron's forces were toppling by the thousands before him and his crew. He felt unstoppable now as he pushed through an entire fleet and got closer and closer to Mejere. The battleship ahead was approaching fast.

_We're going to knock this sucker out of the stars._

"Jura!" Dita called out. Hibiki looked over her shoulder to see the woman slumped over her dashboard. Hibiki also saw the shields were losing power.

"Meia, disengage! Disengage the boosters!" he yelled over his shoulder.

"Hibiki!" Dita's grip tightened as they neared the warship.

"Brace!" Meia shouted.

The shields of the Super Vandread collapsed just as the battleship's did. As metal collided against metal, Hibiki felt his stomach nearly jump out of his throat. He and Dita were practically torn from their restraints with Dita's head hitting the console in front of her. With much of the Super Vandread's momentum still intact, the machine smashed through the front section of the battleship. Multiple floors and hallways passed by the window in the mess of metal and fire outside. A warning alarm blared overhead and a red light flashed on and off. The roar of twisting metal was replaced with the thumping of plasma hitting the Super Vandread from every direction. Hibiki fought to keep the ship under control while he shook Dita to awaken her.

"Hibiki, the controls are locked, power levels are dropping!" Meia reported. They smashed through another ship and continued their tumble. As Hibiki soon realized, they were falling towards Mejere. He could even feel the planet's gravitational pull getting stronger.

Power levels for the Super Vandread decreased faster as it began falling through the outer layer of the atmosphere. The fires of atmospheric reentry covered the view outside. Before he knew it, the queasy feeling of falling was felt in the pit of his stomach.

"Hibiki! We're about to be disconnected!" Meia warned over all the noise. "I'm setting up a rendezvous point!" she told.

"No! We can hold it together!" Hibiki shouted back. His vision slowly began turning to white. "No! Dita! Dita!" Hibiki tightened his grip on her hands and attempted to keep the incapacitated girl in his arms. But as his vision was obscured, he felt her touch vanish. "No!" he screamed over and over as he reappeared within the cockpit of his Vanguard. The burning sensation he felt all over was unnoticed because of his combined anger and fear. He wrestled with the controls to try and find the blue Dread among the darkness around him. "Dita! Meia! Jura! God dammit, someone answer me!" Unable to see where he was going, Hibiki kept his eyes on the altimeter. In less than a minute, he was going to hit the dirt and be completely separated from the _Nirvana _and the rest of the fleet. What was worse was that he could see fires and smoke on the horizon. Against the black sky were hundreds of lights and plasma pulses. Earth's invasion was finally in full swing. He knew before he hit the ground that this was going to be the longest night of his life.


End file.
